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THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE ATOM. 



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Copyright 1922 

by 

Lucifer Publishing Company 



THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE ATOM 

by 

ALICE A. BAILEY 



'■ T ' 



A series of lectures delivered in New York City 
Winter of 1921-22. 



Author of 
"Letters on Occult Meditation" 
"Initiation, Human and Solar" 



First Edition 



Lucifer Publishing Co. 
135 Broadway, 
New York City. 



^\*$\ 

^2^ 



OCT 17 '22 

)C1A683744 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

LECTURE I. 

The Field of Evolution. 

LECTURE II. 

The Evolution of Substance. 

LECTURE III. 
The Evolution of Form, or Group Evolution. 

LECTURE IV. 
The Evolution of Man, the Thinker. 

LECTURE V. 

The Evolution of Consciousness. 

LECTURE VI. 
The Goal of Evolution. 

LECTURE VII. 

Cosmic Evolution. 



FOREWORD 

The lectures here presented were delivered in New 
York during the past winter. The purpose of this series 
was to present to their auditors the testimony of science 
as to the relation of matter and of consciousness; to en- 
able the hearers to observe the identical manifestation of 
these relations and of certain basic laws in successively 
higher states of being, and thus to bring to them a realiza- 
tion of the universality of the evolutionary process and its 
actuality; and to deal somewhat with the nature of the ex- 
panded states of consciousness and the enlarged life to- 
ward which all mankind is traveling. They thus were in- 
tended to serve as an introduction to the more detailed 
study and application of the laws of life and human un- 
foldment generally included in the term of "occultism." 

It will be observed that there is in this series a con- 
siderable amount of repetition, as each lecture briefly re- 
views the matters covered in the preceding addresses. As 
newcomers were present at each lecture in the series, it 
was found necessary on each occasion to present a bird's 
eye view of the ground covered and the reasons for the 
position then taken. A further advantage was found in 
the fixing in the minds of the hearers of certain of these 
basic concepts which were new to many of them, and which 
helped to enable them to grasp and to receive readily the 
further expansion of the theme. In presenting the lectures 
in book form it has been deemed advisable to retain the 
complete text of the lectures as given. Those who are al- 
ready students of the esoteric wisdom will be able to fol- 
low the line of the argument of the lectures without diffi- 
culty. For those however, who for the first time approach 
the consideration of the matters here discussed, the occa- 
sional repetition of the fundamental points may help to a 
ready apprehension, and it is for this class of readers that 
the book is primarily intended. 

Alice A. Bailey 

September, 1922. 



THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE ATOM. 

LECTURE I. 
THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION, 



There has probably never been a period in the history 
of thought entirely resembling the present. Thinkers 
everywhere are conscious of two things, first, that the 
region of mystery has never before been so clearly defined, 
and secondly, that that region can be entered more easily 
than has hitherto been the case ; it may, therefore, perhaps 
be induced to render up some of its secrets if investigators 
of all schools pursue their search with determination. The 
problems with which we are faced, as we study the known 
facts of life and existence, are susceptible of clearer de- 
finition than heretofore, and though we do not know the 
answer to our questions, though we have not as yet dis- 
covered the solution to our problems, though no panacea 
lies ready to our hand whereby we can remedy the world's 
ills, yet the very fact that we can define them, that we can 
point in the direction in which mystery lies, and that the 
light of science, of religion, and of philosophy, has been 
shed upon vast tracts which were earlier considered lands 
of darkness, is a guarantee of success in the future. We 
know so much more than was the case five hundred years 
ago, except in a few circles of wise men and mystics; we 
have discovered so many laws of nature, even though as 
yet we cannot apply them, and the knowledge of "things 
as they are" (and I choose these words very deliberately) 
has made immense strides. 



2 THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 

Nevertheless, the mystery land still remains to be 
opened up, and our problems are still numerous. There 
is the problem of our own particular life, whatever that 
may be; there is the problem of that which is largely 
termed the "Not-Self", and which concerns our physical 
body, our environment, our circumstances, and our life 
conditions; if we are of an introspective turn of mind, 
there is the problem of our particular set of emotions, and 
of the thoughts, desires, and instincts by which we control 
action. Group problems are many; why should there be 
suffering, starvation, and pain? Why should the world 
as a whole be in the thrall of the direst poverty, of sickness, 
of discomfort? What is the purpose underlying all that 
we see around us, and what will be the outcome of world 
affairs, viewing them as a whole? What is the destiny of 
the human race, what is its origin, and what is the key 
to its present condition? Is there more than this one life, 
and is the sole interest to be found in that which is ap- 
parent and material? Such queries pass through all our 
minds at various times, and have passed through the minds 
of thinkers right down through the centuries. 

There have been many attempts to reply to these ques- 
tions, and as we study them, we find that the answers 
given fall into three main groups, and that three prin- 
cipal solutions are held out for the consideration of men. 
These three solutions are : — 

First, Realism. Another name for this school is that 
of Materialism. It teaches that "the presentation which 
we have in consciousness of an external world is true"; 
that things are what they seem; that matter and force, 
as we know them, are the only reality, and that it is not 
possible for man to get beyond the tangible. He should 
be satisfied with facts as he knows them, or as science tells 
him they are. This is a perfectly legitimate method of 



THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 3 

solution, but for some of us it fails in that it does not go 
far enough. In refusing to concern itself with anything 
except that which can be proven and demonstrated it stops 
short at the very point where the enquirer says, "that is so, 
but why?" It leaves out of its calculation much that is 
known and realised as truth by the average man, even 
though he may be unable to explain why he knows it to be 
true. Men everywhere are recognising the accuracy of 
the facts of the realistic school, and of material science, 
yet at the same time they feel innately that there is, under- 
lying the proven objective manifestation, some vitalising 
force, and some coherent purpose which cannot be ac- 
counted for in terms of matter alone. 

Secondly, there is the point of view which we can best, 
perhaps, call supernaturalism. Man becomes conscious 
that perhaps, after all, things are not exactly what they 
seem to be, and that there remains much which is in- 
explicable; he awakens to the realisation that he himself 
is not simply an accumulation of physical atoms, a ma- 
terial something, and a tangible body, but that latent with- 
in him is a consciousness, a power, and a psychic nature 
which link him to all other members of the human family, 
and to a power outside himself which he must perforce 
explain. This it is which has led, for instance, to the 
evolution of the Christian and Jewish point of view, which 
posits a God outside the solar system, Who created it, but 
was Himself extraneous to it. These systems of thought 
teach that the world has been evolved by a Power or Being 
Who has built the solar system, and Who guides the worlds 
aright, keeping our little human life in the hollow of His 
hand, and "sweetly ordering" all things according to some 
hidden purpose which it is not possible for us, with our 
finite minds, to glimpse, still less to understand. This is 
the religious and supernatural point of view, and is based 



4 THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 

on the growing selfconsciousness of the individual, and in 
a recognition of his own divinity. Like the point of view 
of the realistic school, it embodies only a partial truth, 
and needs to be complemented. 

The third line of thought we might call the Idealistic. 
It posits an evolutionary process within all manifestation, 
and identifies life with the cosmic process. It is the exact 
opposite of materialism, and brings the supernatural deity, 
predicated by the religionist, into the position of a great 
Entity or Life, Who is evolving through, and by means of, 
the universe, just as man is evolving consciousness through 
the medium of an objective physical body. 

In these three standpoints — the frankly materialistic, 
the purely supernatural, and the idealistic — you have the 
three main lines of thought which have been put forward 
as explanatory of the cosmic process; all of them are 
partial truths, yet none of them is complete without the 
others, all of them, when followed alone, lead into byways 
and into darkness, and leave the central mystery still un- 
solved. When synthesised, when brought together and 
blended, and when unified, they embody, perhaps, ( I offer 
this simply as a suggestion) just as much of the evolution- 
ary truth as it is possible for the human mind to grasp at 
the present stage of evolution. 

We are dealing with large problems, and tampering, 
perhaps, with high and lofty things; we are trespassing 
into regions which are the recognised domain of meta- 
physics ; and we are endeavouring to sum up in a few brief 
talks what all the libraries of the world are embodying; 
we are therefore attempting the impossible. All that we 
can do is to take up briefly and cursorily first one aspect 
of the truth and then another. All we can possibly ac- 
complish is an outline of the basic lines of evolution, a 
study of their relationship to each other and to ourselves 



THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 5 

as conscious entities, and then an endeavour to blend and 
synthesise the little we can know until some general idea 
of the process as a whole becomes clearer. 

We have to remember in connection with every state- 
ment of truth that each is made from a particular point of 
view. Until we have further developed our mental pro- 
cesses, and until we are able to think in abstract terms as 
well as in concrete, it will not be possible for us to fully 
answer the question, What is truth? nor to express any 
aspect of that truth in a perfectly unbiassed way. Some 
people have a wider horizon than others, and some can see 
the unity underlying the differing aspects. Others are 
prone to think that their outlook and interpretation is the 
only one. I hope in these talks to broaden somewhat our 
point of view. I hope we shall come to the realisation that 
the man who is only interested in the scientific aspect, and 
who confines himself to the study of those manifestations 
which are purely material, is just as much occupied with 
the study of the divine as is his frankly religious brother 
who only concerns himself with the spiritual side; and 
that the philosopher is, after all, occupied in emphasising 
for us the very necessary aspect of the intelligence which 
links the matter aspect and the spiritual, and blends 
them into one coherent whole. Perhaps by the union 
of these three lines of science, religion, and philoso- 
phy, we may get a working knowledge of the truth as it 
is, remembering at the same time that "truth lies within 
ourselves." No one man's expression of the truth is the 
whole expression, and the sole purpose of thought is to 
enable us to build constructively for ourselves, and to work 
in mental matter. 

I should like to outline my plan this evening, to lay 
the groundwork for our future talks, and to touch upon 
the main lines of evolution. The line that is most apparent 



6 THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 

is necessarily that which deals with the evolution of sub- 
stance, with the study of the atom, and the nature of atom- 
ic matter. Next week Ave will touch upon that. Science 
has much to tell us about the evolution of the atom, and 
has wandered a long way during the past fifty years from 
the standpoint of the last century. Then the atom was re- 
garded as an indivisible unit of substance ; now it is looked 
upon as a centre of energy, or electric force. From the 
evolution of substance we are led very naturally to the 
evolution of forms, or of congeries of atoms, and there will 
then open up to us the interesting consideration of forms 
other than the purely material, — forms existing in subtler 
substance, such as forms of thought, and the racial forms, 
and the forms of organisations. In this dual study, one 
of the aspects of deity will be emphasised, should you 
choose to use the term "deity", or one of the manifestations 
of nature, should you prefer that less sectarian expression. 
We shall then be led to the consideration of the evolu- 
tion of intelligence, or of the factor of mind which is work- 
ing out as ordered purpose in all that we see around us. 
This will reveal to us a world which is not blindly going 
on its way, but which has back of it some plan, some co- 
ordinated scheme, some organised concept which is work- 
ing itself out by means of the material form. One reason 
why things appear to us so difficult of comprehension is 
involved in the fact that we are in the midst of a transition 
period, and the plan is as yet imperfect ; we are too close 
to the machinery, being ourselves an integral part of the 
whole. We see a little bit of it here, and another little 
bit there, but the whole grandeur of the idea is not appar- 
ent to us. We may have a vision, we may have a high mo- 
ment of revelation, but when we contact the reality on 
every side, we question the possibility of the ideal materi- 
alising, for the intelligent relationship between the form 



THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 7 

and that which utilises it seems so far from adjustment. 

The recognition of the factor of the intelligence will 
inevitably lead us to the contemplation of the evolution 
of consciousness in its many forms, ranging all the way 
from those types of consciousness which we consider sub- 
human, through the human, up to what may be logically 
posited (even if it may not be demonstrated) to be super- 
human consciousness. The next question which will face 
us will be, what lies back of all these factors? Is there, 
behind the objective form and its animating intelligence, 
an evolution which corresponds to the "I" faculty, to the 
Ego in man? Is there in nature, and in all that we see 
around us, the working out of the purpose of an indi- 
vidualised self conscious Being? If there is such a Being, 
and such a fundamental existence, we should be able to 
see somewhat His intelligent activities, and to watch His 
plans working towards fruition. Even if we cannot prove 
that God is, and that the Deity exists, it may be possible to 
say, at least, that the hypothesis that He exists is a rea- 
sonable one, a rational suggestion, and a possible solution 
of all the mysteries we see around us. But to do that it 
has to be demonstrated that there is an intelligent pur- 
pose working through forms of every kind, through races 
and nations, and through all that we see manifesting in 
modern civilisation ; the steps that that purpose has taken, 
and the gradual growth of the plan, will have to be dem- 
onstrated, and from that demonstration we shall perhaps 
be able to see what lies ahead for us in the coming stages. 

Let us for a minute consider what we mean by the 
words "evolutionary process". They are constantly being- 
used, and the average man well knows that the word 
"evolution" suggests an unfolding from within out- 
wards, and the unrolling from an inner centre, but we 
need to define the idea more clearly, and thus get a better 



8 THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 

concept. One of the best definitions which I have come 
across is that which defines evolution as "the unfolding of 
a continually increasing power to respond." Here we have 
a definition that is very illuminating as we consider the 
matter aspect of manifestation. It involves the concep- 
tion of vibration, and of response to vibration, and though 
we may in time have to discard the term "matter", and 
employ some such expression as "force centre", the con- 
cept still holds good, and the response of the centre to 
stimulation is even more accurately to be seen. In con- 
sidering human consciousness this same definition is of 
real value. It involves the idea of a gradually increasing 
realisation, of the developing response of the subjective 
life to its environment, and it leads us eventually on and 
up to the ideal of a unified Existence which will be the 
synthesis of all the lines of evolution, and to a conception 
of a central Life, or force, which blends and holds together 
all the evolving units, whether they are units of matter, 
such as the atom of the chemist and the physicist, or units 
of consciousness, such as human beings. This is evolu- 
tion, the process which unfolds the life within all units, 
the developing urge which eventually merges all units and 
all groups, until you have that sum total of manifestation 
which can be called Nature, or God, and which is the aggre- 
gate of all the states of consciousness. This is the God to 
Whom the Christian refers when he says "in Him we live, 
and move, and have our being" ; this is the force, or energy, 
which the scientist recognises; and this is the universal 
mind, or the Oversoul of the philosopher. This, again, is 
the intelligent Will which controls, formulates, binds, con- 
structs, develops, and brings all to an ultimate perfection. 
This is that Perfection which is inherent in matter itself, 
and the tendency which is latent in the atom, in man, and 
in all that is. This interpretation of the evolutionary 



THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 9 

process does not look upon it as the result of an outside 
Deity pouring His energy and wisdom upon a waiting 
world, but rather as something which is latent within 
that world itself, that lies hidden at the heart of the atom 
of chemistry, within the heart of man himself, within the 
planet, and within the solar system. It is that something 
which drives all on toward the goal, and is the force which 
is gradually bringing order out of chaos; ultimate per- 
fection out of temporary imperfection; good out of seem- 
ing evil; and out of darkness and disaster that which we 
shall some day recognise as beautiful, right, and true. It 
is all that we have visioned and conceived of in our highest 
and best moments. 

Evolution has also been denned as "cyclic develop- 
ment", and this definition brings me to a thought which 
I am very anxious that we should thoroughly grasp. 
Nature repeats continuously until certain definite ends 
have been reached, certain concrete results have been 
brought about, and certain responses made to vibration. 
It is by the recognition of this accomplishment that the 
intelligent purpose of indwelling Existence can be dem- 
onstrated. The method whereby this is achieved is that 
of discrimination, or of intelligent choice. There are, in 
the text-books of different schools, many words which are 
used to convey the same general idea, such as "natural 
selection", or "attraction and repulsion". I would like, if 
possible, to avoid technical terms, because they are used 
by one school of thought to mean one thing, and by another, 
something different. If we can find a word similar in in- 
tent, yet not tied to any particular line of thought, we may 
find fresh light thrown upon our problem. Attraction and 
repulsion in the solar system is but the discriminating 
faculty of the atom or of man demonstrating in the planets 
and the sun. It will be found in atoms of all kinds; we 



10 THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 

can call it adaptation, if we so choose, or the power to grow 
and to adapt the unit to its environment through the re- 
jection of certain factors and the acceptance of others. It 
shows itself in man as free will, or the power to choose, 
and in the spiritual man it can be seen as the tendency 
to sacrifice, for a man then chooses a particular line of 
action in order to benefit the group to which he belongs, 
and rejects that which is purely selfish. 

We might finally define evolution as ordered change 
and constant mutation. It demonstrates in the ceaseless 
activity of the unit or the atom, the interaction between 
groups, and the endless play of one force or type of energy 
upon another. 

We have seen that evolution, whether it is of matter, 
of intelligence, of consciousness, or of spirit, consists in 
an ever increasing power to respond to vibration, that it 
progresses through constant change, by the practice of a 
selective policy or the use of the discriminative faculty, 
and by the method of psychic development or repetition. 
The stages which distinguish the evolutionary process 
might be broadly divided into three, corresponding to the 
stages in the life of a human being: childhood, adoles- 
cence, and maturity. Where man is concerned these 
stages can be traced in the human unit or in the race, and 
as the civilisations pass on and increase, it should surely 
become possible to trace the same threefold idea in the 
human family as a whole, and thus ascertain the divine 
objective through the study of His image, or reflection, 
MAN. We might express these three stages in more 
scientific terms, and link them with the three schools of 
thought earlier referred to, studying them as, 

a. The stage of atomic energy. 

b. The stage of group coherency. 

c. The stage of unified or synthetic existence. 



THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 11 

Let me see if I can make my meaning clear. The stage 
of atomic energy is largely that which concerns the ma- 
terial side of life, and corresponds to the childhood period 
in the life of a man or a race. It is the time of realism, of 
intense activity, of development by action above all else, 
or pnre self-centredness and self-interest. It produces the 
materialistic point of view, and leads inevitably to selfish- 
ness. It involves the recognition of the atom as being en- 
tirely self-contained, and similarly of the human unit as 
having a separate life apart from all other units, and with 
no relationship to others. Such a stage can be seen in the 
little evolved races of the world, in small children, and in 
those who are little developed. They are normally self- 
centred ; their energies are concerned with their own life ; 
they are occupied with the objective and with that which 
is tangible ; they are characterised by a necessary and pro- 
tective selfishness. It is a most necessary stage in the de- 
velopment and perpetuation of the race. 

Out of this selfish atomic period grows another stage, 
that of group coherency. This involves the building up of 
forms or species until you have something coherent and 
individualised in itself as a whole, yet which is composed 
of many lesser individualities and forms. In connection 
with the human being it corresponds to his awakening 
realisation of responsibility, and to his recognition of his 
place within the group. It necessitates an ability on his 
part to recognise a life greater than himself, whether that 
life is called God, or whether it is simply regarded as the 
life of the group to which a man, as a unit, belongs, that 
great Identity of which we are each a part. This corre- 
sponds to the school of thought which we called the super- 
natural, and it must be succeeded in time by a truer and 
a wider concept. As we have already seen, the first or 
atomic stage developed by means of selfishness, or the self- 



12 THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 

centred life of the atom (whether the atom of substance 
or the human atom) ; the second stage grows to perfection 
by the sacrifice of the unit to the good of the many, and 
of the atom to the group in which it has place. This stage 
is something which we, as yet, know practically little 
about, and is what we often vision and hope for. 

The third stage lies a long way ahead, and may be 
considered by many a vain chimera. But some of us have 
a vision, which, even if unattainable at present, is logical- 
ly possible if our premises are correct, and our foundation 
is rightly laid. It is that of unified existence. Not only 
will there be the separate units of consciousness ; not only 
the differentiated atoms within the form, not only will 
there be the group made up of a multiplicity of identities, 
but we shall have the aggregate of all forms, of all groups, 
and of all states of consciousness blended, unified, and 
synthesised into a perfected whole. This whole you may 
call the solar system, you may call it nature, or you may 
call it God. Names matter not. It corresponds to the 
adult stage in the human being; it is analogous to the 
period of maturity, and to that stage wherein a man is 
supposed to have a definite purpose and life work, and a 
clear-cut plan in view, which he is working out by the aid 
of his intelligence. In these talks I should like, if I can, to 
show that something like this is going on in the solar sys- 
tem, in the planet, in the human family, and in the atom. 
I trust that we can prove that there is an intelligence un- 
derlying all; and that from separation will come union, 
produced through blending and merging into group forma- 
tion, and that eventually from the many groups will be 
seen emerging the one perfect, fully conscious whole, com- 
posed of myriads of separated identities animated by one 
purpose and one will. If this is so, what is the next prac- 
tical step ahead for those who come to this realisation? 



THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 13 

How can we make practical application of this ideal to our 
own lives, and ascertain our immediate duty so that we 
may participate in, and consciously further the plan? In 
the cosmic process we have our tiny share, and each day 
of activity should see us playing our part with intelligent 
understanding. 

Our first aim should surely be self realisation through 
the practice of discrimination; we must learn to think 
clearly for ourselves, to formulate our own thoughts and 
to manipulate our own mental processes; we must learn 
to know what we think and why we think it, to find out 
the nature of our life, and to experiment. We find our- 
selves, and know ourselves, through the method of dis- 
crimination and of selection and rejection. 

When this is the practice of our lives, and the habit 
of our thought, we can then endeavour to find out the 
meaning of group consciousness through the study of the 
law of sacrifice. Not only must we find ourselves through 
the primary childhood stage of selfishness (and surely that 
should lie behind us), not only should we learn to dis- 
tinguish between the real and the unreal, through the prac- 
tice of discrimination, but we should endeavour to pass on 
from that to something very much better. For us the 
immediate goal should be to find the group to which we 
may belong. We do not belong to all groups, nor can we 
consciously realise our place in the one great Body, but 
we can find some group in which we have our place, some 
body of people with whom we can co-operate and work, 
some brother or brothers whom we can succour and assist. 
It really involves the conscious contacting of the ideal of 
brotherhood, and — until we have evolved to the stage 
where our concept is universal — it means finding the par- 
ticular set of brothers whom we can love and help by means 
of the law of sacrifice, and by the transmutation of selfish- 



14 THE FIELD OF EVOLUTION 

ness into loving service. Thus we can co-operate in the 
general purpose, and participate in the mission of the 
group. 

Next week Ave will follow out some of these ideas in 
connection with the evolution of substance, and the part it 
plays in the general scheme. 



LECTURE II. 



THE EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE. 



It is obvious that in such a series of lectures as this 
it would be impossible to deal adequately in any way with 
this stupendous subject, even were I equipped to lecture 
on such a fundamentally scientific matter. Again, if the 
conclusions of science were definite upon the evolution of 
matter, the topic would be, even then, too vast to handle, 
but they are not, and hence the further complicating of 
the subject. Therefore I want to preface my remarks to- 
night by stating that my aim is to speak particularly for 
those who have no scientific training of any land, and to 
give them a general concept of the usually accepted ideas ; 
I seek, then, to make some suggestions which we may find 
helpful in adjusting our minds to this great problem of 
matter. Usually when the substance aspect of manifesta- 
tion has been considered, it has been as a thing apart, and 
it is only lately that what I might call the "psychology of 
matter" is beginning to come before the mind of the pub- 
lic through the investigations and conclusions of the 
broader minded scientists. 

You will remember that last week I endeavoured, in 
a broad and general way, to point out to you that there 
were three lines of approach to the study of the material 
universe. There is the line which considers only the ma- 
terialistic aspect, and is occupied only with that which can 
be seen, which is tangible, and which can be proven. A 
second line is that of supernaturalism, which recognises 



15 



16 EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 

not so much the material side of things as that which is 
called divine ; it deals with the life side, and with the spirit 
aspect, viewing that Life as a power extraneous to the 
solar system and to man, and positing that power as a 
great creative Agent, Who creates and guides the objective 
universe and yet is outside of it. These two lines of 
thought can be seen upheld by the frankly materialistic 
scientist, the orthodox Christian, and the deist of every 
faith. 

I indicated next a third line of approach to the prob- 
lem, and we called it the idealistic concept. It recognises 
the material form, but sees also the life within it, and it 
posits a Consciousness or Intelligence which is evolving 
by means of that outer form. You will find, I think, that 
that is the line which I shall emphasise and stress in these 
lectures. No speaker is able, after all, to dissociate him- 
self entirely from his own point of view, and in these talks 
I have set myself the task of working along this third line, 
for to me it synthesises the other two, and adds certain 
concepts which produce a coherent whole when merged 
with the other two. It is for you to decide if this third 
standpoint is logical, reasonable, and clear. 

The most common fact in life for all of us is that of 
the material world, — that world which we can see and con- 
tact by means of the five senses, and which is called by the 
metaphysical thinkers the "not-self", or that which is ob- 
jective to each one of us. As we all know, the work of 
the chemist is to reduce all known substances to their very 
simplest elements, and it was thought not long ago that 
this had been satisfactorily accomplished. The con- 
clusions of the chemist placed the number of the known 
elements between seventy and eighty. About twenty years 
ago, however, (in 1898) a new element was discovered 
which was called Eadium, and this discovery entirely 



EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 17 

revolutionized the world's thought about matter and sub- 
stance. If you will go to the text-books of the last century, 
or search the old dictionaries, seeking for the definition of 
the atom, for instance, you will usually find Newton 
quoted. He defined the atom as "a hard, indivisible, ulti- 
mate particle", a something which was incapable of fur- 
ther subdivision. This was considered to be the ultimate 
atom in the universe, and was called by the scientist of the 
Victorian era "the foundation stone of the universe" ; they 
considered they had gone as far back as it was possible to 
go, and that they had discovered what lay back of all mani- 
festation and of objectivity itself. But when radium, and 
the other radio-active substances, had been discovered, an 
entirely new aspect of the situation had to be faced. It 
became apparent that what was considered the ultimate 
particle was not so at all. As you now have the definition 
of the atom (I am quoting from the Standard Dictionary) 
it is: 

"An atom is a centre of force, a phase of electric- 
al phenomena, a centre of energy, active through 
its own internal make-up, and giving off energy 
or heat or radiation." 
Therefore, an atom is (as Lord Kelvin in 1867 thought it 
would ultimately turn out to be) a "vortex ring", or centre 
of force, and not a particle of what we understand as 
tangible substance. This ultimate particle of matter is 
now demonstrated to be composed of a positive nucleus of 
energy, surrounded — just as is the sun by the planets — 
with many electrons or negative corpuscles, thus subdivid- 
ing the atom of earlier science into numerous lesser bodies. 
The elements differ according to the number and arrange- 
ment of these negative electrons around their positive 
nucleus, and they rotate or move around this central 
charge of electricity as our planetary system rotates 



18 EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 

around the sun. Professor Soddy, in one of his latest 
books, has pointed out that in the atom is to be seen an 
entire solar system, — the central sun can be recognised, 
with the planets pursuing their orbital paths around it. 

It would be apparent to each of us that when this 
definition of the atom is contemplated and studied an en- 
tirely new concept of substance comes before us. Dog- 
matic assertions are therefore out of order, for it is realised 
that perhaps the next discovery may reveal to us the fact 
that the electrons themselves may be worlds within worlds. 
An interesting speculation along these lines is to be found 
in a book by one of our scientific thinkers in which he sug- 
gests that we might be able to divide and subdivide the 
electron itself into what he calls "psychons", and thus be 
led into realms which are not now considered physical. 
That may be only a dream, but the thing that I am seeking 
to impress upon my mind and yours is that we scarcely 
know where we stand in scientific thought, any more than 
we know where we stand in the religious and economic 
world. Everything is passing through a period of transi- 
tion; the old order changeth; the old way of looking at 
things is proving false or inadequate; the old expressions 
of thought seem futile. All that the wise man can do just 
now is to reserve his opinion, ascertain for himself what 
appeals to him as truth, and endeavour then to synthesise 
that particular aspect of universal truth with that aspect 
which has been accepted by his brother. 

The atom, then, can be predicated as resolving itself 
into electrons, and can be expressed in terms of force or 
energy. When you have a centre of energy or activity you 
are involved in a dual concept ; you have that which is the 
cause of movement or energy, and that which it energises 
or actuates. This brings us directly into the field of psy- 
chology, because energy or force is ever regarded as a 



EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 19 

quality, and where you have a quality you are really con- 
sidering the field of psychic phenomena. 

There are certain terms in use when considering sub- 
stance which are continuously appearing, and about which 
there is a wide diversity of definition. In looking over one 
scientific book last week it was discouraging to find the 
author pointing out that the atom of the chemist, of the 
physicist, of the mathematician, and of the metaphysician 
were four totally different things. That is another reason 
why it is not possible to be dogmatic in dealing with these 
questions. Nevertheless, rightly or wrongly, I have a very 
definite hypothesis to put before you. When we talk about 
radium, we are, in all probability, venturing into the realm 
of etheric substance,, the region of ether, or of protyle. 
Protyle was a word coined by Sir William Crookes, and 
is defined by him as follows : 

"Protyle is a word analogous to protoplasm, to 
express the idea of the original primal matter before 
the evolution of the chemical elements. The word I 
have ventured to use for this purpose is compounded 
of a Greek word 'earlier than', and 'the stuff of 
which things are made'." 

We are, therefore, throwing the concept of matter 
back to where the oriental school has always put it, to 
primordial stuff, to that which the orientalist calls "prim- 
ordial ether", though we must ever remember that the ether 
of science is many, many removes from the primordial ether? 
of the oriental occultist. We are led back to that intangible 
something which is the basis of the objective thing which 
you and I can see and touch and handle. The word "sub- 
stance" itself means that which "stands under", or which 
lies back of things. All, therefore, that we can predicate 
in connection with the ether of space is that it is the medi- 
um in which energy or force functions, or makes itself felt. 



20 EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 

When we are talking in these lectures of energy and force, 
and of matter and substance, we can separate them in our 
minds thus: We speak about energy and substance 
when we are considering that which is as yet intangible, 
and we use force in connection with matter when dealing 
with that aspect of the objective which our scientists are 
definitely studying. Substance is the ether in one of its 
many grades, and is that which lies back of matter itself. 
WTien we speak of energy there must be that which 
energises, that which is the source of energy and the origin 
of that force which demonstrates in matter. It is here that 
I seek to lay the emphasis. Whence comes this energy, and 
what is it? 

Scientists are recognising ever more clearly that 
atoms possess qualities, and it would be interesting if one 
were to take the different scientific books dealing with the 
subject of atomic matter, and note which of the many and 
varying terms applied to them could be applied to a human 
being also. On a small scale I have attempted this, and 
found it very illuminating. 

First of all, as we know, the atom is spoken of as pos- 
sessing energy, and the power to change from one mode of 
activity to another. One writer has remarked that "abso- 
lute intelligence thrills through every atom in the world." 
In this connection I want to point out to you what Edison 
is reported by an interviewer as having said, in Harper's 
Magazine for February, 1890, and which is enlarged upon 
in the Scientific American for October, 1920. In the earlier 
instance he is quoted as follows : 

"I do not believe that matter is inert, acted upon by 
an outside force. To me it seems that every atom is 
possessed by a certain amount of primitive intelli- 
gence. Look at the thousands of ways in which atoms 
of hydrogen combine with those of other elements, 



EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 21 

forming the most diverse substances. Do yon mean to 
say that they do this without intelligence? Atoms in 
harmonious and useful relation assume beautiful or 
interesting shapes and colours, or give forth a pleas- 
ant perfume, as if expressing their satisfaction 

gathered together in certain forms, the atoms consti- 
tute animals of the lower order. Finally they com- 
bine in man, who represents the total intelligence of 
all the atoms." 

"But where does this intelligence come from origin- 
_ ally?" asked the interviewer. 

"From some power greater than ourselves," Edison 
answered. 

"Do you believe, then, in an intelligent Creator, a 
personal God?" 

"Certainly. The existence of such a Grod can, to my 
mind, be proved from chemistry." 
In the long interview quoted last year in the Scientific 
American, Edison laid down a number of most interesting 
surmises from which I have culled the following : 

1. Life, like matter is indestructible. 

2. Our bodies are composed of myriads of infinite- 
simal entities, each in itself a unit of life ; just as the 
atom is composed of myriads of electrons. 

3. The human being acts as an assemblage rather 
than as a unit; the body and mind express the vote 
or voice of the life entities. 

4. The life entities build according to a plan. If a 
part of the life organism be mutilated, they rebuild 
exactly as before 

7. Science admits the difficulty of drawing the line 
between the inanimate and the animate; perhaps the 
life entities extend their activities to crystals and 
chemicals 



22 EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 

9. The life entities live for ever; so that to this 
extent at least the eternal life which many of us hope 
for is a reality. 

In an address given by Sir Clifford Allbut, President 
of the British Medical Association, as reported in the Liter- 
ary Digest of February 26th, 1921, he speaks of the ability 
of the microbe to select and reject, and in the course of his 
remarks he says : — 

"When the microbe finds itself in the host's body it 
may be wholly out of tune, or wholly in tune, with any 
or all cells that it approaches ; in either case presum- 
ably nothing morbid would happen morbid 

happenings would lie between this microbe and body- 
cells within its range but not in tune with it. Now 
there seems to be reason to suppose that a microbe, on 
its approach to a body cell only just out of its range, 
may try this way and that to get a hitch on. If so, the 
microbe, at first innocuous, would become noxious. So, 
on the other hand, body-cells may educate themselves 
to vibrate in harmony with a microbe before disson- 
ant; or there may be mutual interchange and co- 
adaptation 

"But, if things be so, surely we are face to face with 
a marvelous and far-reaching faculty, the faculty of 
choice, and this rising from the utter bottom of bi- 
ology to the summit— formative faculty — 'auto-de- 
termination', or, if you please, -mind'." 
In the year 1895, Sir William Crookes, one of our 
greatest scientists, gave an interesting lecture before a 
body of chemists in Great Britain, in which he dealt with 
the ability of the atom to choose its own path, to reject and 
to select, and showed that natural selection can be traced 
in all forms of life, from the then ultimate atom up 
through all forms of being. 



EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 23 

In another scientific article, the atom is further ac- 
cused of having sensation as well : 

"The recent contest as to the nature of atoms, which 
we must regard as in some form or other the ultimate 
factors in all physical and chemical processes, seems 
to be capable of easiest solution by the conception 
that these very minute masses possess — as centres of 
force — a persistent soul, that every atom has sensation 
and power of movement." 

Tyndall has likewise pointed out that even the very 
atoms themselves seem to be ••instinct with the desire for 
life." 

If you take these different qualities of the atom — 
energy, intelligence, ability to select and reject, to attract 
and repulse, sensation, movement, and desire — you have 
something which is very much like the psychology- of a 
human being, only within a more limited radius and of a 
more circumscribed degree. Have we not, therefore, really 
got back to what might be termed the "psyche of the 
atom"? We have found that the atom is a living entity, a 
little vibrant world, and that within its sphere of influence 
other little lives are to be found, and this very much in 
the same sense as each of us is an entity, or positive nucleus 
of force or life, holding within our sphere of influence other- 
lesser lives, i.e., the cells of our body. What can be said 
of us can be said, in degree, of the atom. 

Let us extend our idea of the atom a little further, and 
touch upon what may be fundamentally the cause, and 
hold the solution of the world problems. This concept of 
the atom as a positive demonstration of energy, holding 
within its range of activity its polar opposite, can be ex- 
tended not only to every type of atom, but also to a human 
being. We can view each unit of the human family as a 
human atom, for in man you have simply a larger atom. 



24 EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 

He is a centre of positive force, holding within the peri- 
phery of his sphere of influence the cells of his body; he 
shows discrimination, intelligence, and energy. The dif- 
ference lies but in degree. He is possessed of a wider con- 
sciousness, and vibrates to a larger measure than the little 
atom of the chemist. 

We might extend the idea still further and consider 
a planet as an atom. Perhaps there is a life within the 
planet that holds the substance of the sphere and all forms 
of life upon it to itself as a coherent whole, and that has a 
specific extent of influence. This may sound like a wild 
speculation, yet, judging from analogy, there may perhaps 
be within the planetary sphere an Entity Whose conscious- 
ness is as far removed from that of man as the conscious- 
ness of man is from that of the atom of chemistry. 

This thought can again be carried still further, till it 
includes the atom of the solar system. There, at the heart 
of the solar system, the sun, you have the positive centre of 
energy, holding the planets within its sphere of influence. 
If you have within the atom, intelligence ; if you have within 
the human being, intelligence; if you have within the 
planet, an Intelligence controlling all its functions, 
may it not be logical to extend the idea and predicate 
a still greater Intelligence back of that larger atom, the 
solar system? 

This brings us ultimately to the standpoint which the 
religious world has always held, that of there being a God, 
or Divine Being. Where the orthodox Christian would 
say with reverence, God, the scientist, with equal reverence, 
would say, Energy; yet they would both mean the same. 
Where the idealistic teacher would speak of the "God with- 
in" the human form, others with equal accuracy would 
speak of the "energising faculty" of man, which drives him 
into activity of a physical, emotional, or mental nature. 



EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 25 

Everywhere are to be found centres of force, and the idea 
can be extended from such a force centre as a chemical 
atom, on and up through varying grades and groups of such 
intelligent centres, to man, and thence to the Life which 
is manifesting through the system. Thus is demon- 
strated a marvellous and synthesised Whole. St. Paul may 
have had something of this sort in mind when he spoke 
about the Heavenly Man. By the "body of Christ" he 
surely means all those units of the human family who are 
held within His sphere of influence, and who go to the 
constitution of His body, as the aggregate of the physical 
cells form the physical body of the man. What is needed in 
these days of religious upheaval is that these fundamental 
truths of Christianity should be demonstrated to be 
scientific truths. We need to make religion scientific. 

There is a very interesting Sanskrit writing, many 
thousands of years old, which I am venturing to quote 
here. It says : 

"Every form on earth, and every speck (atom) in 

space, strives in its efforts towards self -formation, and 

to follow the model placed for it in the Heavenly Man. 

The involution and the evolution of the atom 

have all one and the same object: man." 
Do you note what a large hope this concept opens out be- 
fore us? Not one atom of matter, showing latent intelli- 
gence, discrimination, and selective power, but will, in the 
course of aeons, reach that more advanced stage of con- 
sciousness which we call human. Surely, then, the human 
atom may equally be supposed to progress to something 
still more widely conscious, and eventually reach the stage 
of development of those great Entities whose bodies are 
planetary atoms; and for Them, as well, what is there? 
Attainment of that all-including state of consciousness 
which we call God, or the solar Logos. Surely this teach- 



20 EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 

ing is logical and practical. The old occult injunction 
which said to a man "Know thyself, for in thyself is to be 
found all that there is to be known," is still the rule for the 
wise student. If each one of us would scientifically regard 
ourselves as centres of force, holding the matter of our 
bodies within our radius of control, and thus working 
through and in them, we should have a hypothesis whereby 
the entire cosmic scheme could be interpreted. If, as Ein- 
stein hints, our entire solar system is but a sphere, colour- 
ing is given to the deduction that it, in its turn, may be but 
a cosmic atom ; thus we would have a place within a still 
larger scheme, and have a centre around which our system 
rotates, and in which it is as the electron to the atom. We 
have been told by astronomers that our entire system is 
probably revolving around a central point in the heavens. 

Thus the basic idea which I have sought to emphasize 
can be traced all the way up, through the atom of the chem- 
ist and physicist, through man, through the energising 
Life of a planet, up to the Logos, the deity of our solar sys- 
tem, the Intelligence or Life which lies back of all mani- 
festation or of nature, and on to some greater scheme in 
which even our God has to play His part and to find His 
place. It is a wonderful picture if true. 

I cannot deal tonight with the different developments 
of this intelligence animating all atoms, but I should like 
for a moment to take up what is perhaps the method of 
their evolution, and this from the human standpoint 
( which concerns us the most intimately ) remembering ever 
that what is true of any one atom should be true in greater 
or less degree of all. 

In considering broadly the atoms of the solar system, 
including the system itself, there are two things notice- 
able: the first is the intense life and activity of the atom 
itself, and its internal atomic energy ; and the second is its 



EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 27 

interaction with other atoms — repulsing some and attract- 
ing others. Perhaps, then, we may deduce from these facts, 
that the method of evolution for every atom is due to two 
causes : the internal life of the atom itself, and its inter- 
action or intercourse with other atoms. These two stages 
are apparent in the evolution of the human atom. The 
first was emphasised by the Christ when He said: "the 
kingdom of Cod is within you," thus pointing all human 
atoms to the centre of life or energy within themselves, 
and teaching them that from and through that centre they 
must expand and grow. Each one of us is con- 
scious of being centred within himself; he considers 
everything from his own standpoint, and the outer 
happenings are mostly interesting just in so far 
as they concern himself. We deal with things as 
they affect us personally, and all that occurs to others at 
a certain stage of our evolution is important only as it 
concerns ourselves. That is the present stage of many, and 
is characteristic of the majority ; it is the period of intense 
individualism, and that in which the "I" concept is of para- 
mount importance. It involves much internal activity. 
The second way the human atom grows is through its 
interaction with all other atoms, and this is something 
which is only just beginning to dawn upon the human 
intelligence, and to assume its just importance. We are 
only beginning to realise the relative significance of com- 
petition and of co-operation, and are on the verge of realis- 
ing that we cannot live our life selfishly and apart from the 
group in which we find a place; we are commencing to 
learn that if our brother is held back, and is not making 
progress, and if the other human atoms are not vibrating 
as they should, every atom in the body corporate is affected. 
None of us will be complete until all other units have 
achieved their fullest and most complete development. 



28 EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 

Next week I shall enlarge a little upon this, when I 
take up the question of form building. I only seek tonight, 
in bringing this lecture to a conclusion, to bring to your 
consciousness an appreciation of the place we each hold 
in the general scheme, and to enable us to realise the im- 
portance of the interaction which goes on between all 
atoms. I seek to point out the necessity of finding for 
ourselves our place in the group to which we naturally 
belong (in which we are as the electrons to the positive 
charge) , and of our then proceeding to do our work within 
that larger atom, the group. 

This makes the entire hypothesis not merely a wild 
dream, but a practically useful ideal. If it is true that all 
the cells of our bodies, for instance, are the electrons which 
we hold coherently together, and if we are the energising 
factor within the material form, it is of prime importance 
that we recognise that fact, and deal rightly and scientifi- 
cally with those forms and their atoms. This involves the 
practical care of the physical body and the wise adapta- 
tion of all our energy to the work to be done, and to the 
nature of our objective ; it necessitates the judicious utili- 
sation of that aggregate of cells which is our instrument, 
or tool, and our sphere of manifestation. This is some- 
thing of which we, as yet, know little. When this thought 
is developed, and the human being is recognised as a force 
centre, the attitude of people towards their work and mode 
of living will be fundamentally altered. The point of view 
of the medical world, for instance, will be changed, and 
people will study the right methods of utilising energy. 
Disease through ignorance, will no longer exist, and 
the methods of transmitting force will be studied and fol- 
lowed. We shall then be truly intelligent atoms — a thing 
we, as yet, are not. 

Again, we shall not only be practical in the handling 



EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 29 

of our material bodies, because Ave understand their con- 
stitution, but we shall consciously find our place within 
the group, and direct our energy to the benefiting of the 
group, and not, as now, to the furthering of our own ends. 
Many atoms have not only an internal life of their own, 
but also radiate, and as radio-activity is gradually under- 
stood, so the study of man as a centre of active radiation 
will also come into being. We are standing these days 
on the verge of wonderful discoveries; we are nearing a 
marvellous synthesis of the thought of the world; we are 
advancing towards that period when science and religion 
will come to the help of each other, and when philosophy 
will add its quota to the understanding of the truth. 

The use of the imagination will frequently open up a 
wonderful vision, and if this imagination is based on essen- 
tials, and starts with a logical hypothesis, perhaps it will 
lead us to the solution of some of the mysteries and prob- 
lems which are distressing the world now. If things are 
to us mysterious and inexplicable, may it not be because 
of that great Entity Who is manifesting through our 
planet, and Who is working out a definite purpose and 
plan, just as you and I may be doing in our lives. At times 
we carry our physical vehicle into situations, and bring 
about difficulties in connection with it, which are both pain- 
ful and distressing ; granted the hypothesis upon which we 
are working, it may, therefore, be logical to surmise that 
the great Intelligence of our planet is similarly carrying 
His entire body of manifestation (which includes the 
human family) into situations which are distressing to the 
atoms. Surely it may be logical to suppose that the mys- 
tery of all we see around us may be hidden in the will and 
intelligent purpose of that greater Life, Who works through 
our planet as man works through the medium of his physi- 



30 EVOLUTION OF SUBSTANCE 

cal body, and yet Who is Himself but an atom within a 
still larger sphere, which is indwelt by the solar Logos, the 
Intelligence Who is the sum total of all the lesser lives. 



LECTURE III. 

THE EVOLUTION OF FORM, OR GROUP 

EVOLUTION. 



I want to enlarge tonight upon the basic idea of the 
unity of consciousness, or of intelligence, as developed 
somewhat in the lecture last week, and to extend the con- 
cept still further. It has been said that all evolution pro- 
ceeds from homogeneous, through heterogeneity, back 
again to homogeneity, and it has been pointed out that: 
"Evolution is a continually accelerating march of 
all the particles of the universe which leads them sim- 
ultaneously, by a path sown with destruction, but 
uninterrupted and unpausing, from the material atom 
to that universal consciousness in which omnipotence 
and omniscience are realised; in a word, to the full 
realisation of the Absolute of God," 
This proceeds from those minute diversifications 
which we call molecules and atoms up to their aggregate 
as they are built into forms ; and continues on through the 
building of those forms into greater forms, until you have 
a solar system in its entirety. All has proceeded under 
law, and the same basic laws govern the evolution of the 
atom as the evolution of a solar system. The macrocosm 
repeats itself in man, the microcosm, and the microcosm is 
again reflected in all lesser atoms. 

These remarks and the previous lecture concern them- 
selves primarily with the material manifestation of a solar 
system, but I shall seek to lay the emphasis in our future 



31 



32 EVOLUTION OF FORM 

talks principally upon what we might call the psychical 
evolution, or the gradual demonstration and evolutionary 
unfoldment of that subjective intelligence or conscious- 
ness which lies behind the objective manifestation. 

As usual, we will handle this lecture in four divi- 
sions : First, we will take the subject of the evolutionary 
process, which, in this particular case is the evolution of 
the form, or the group ; then the method of group develop- 
ment; next we will consider the stages that are followed 
during the cycle of evolution, and finally we will conclude 
with an attempt to be practical, and to gather out of our 
conclusions some lesson to apply to the daily life. 

The first thing necessary for us to do is to con- 
sider somewhat the question of what a form really is. If 
we turn to a dictionary we will find the word defined as 
follows : "the external shape or configuration of a 
body." In this definition the emphasis is laid upon its 
externality, upon its tangibility and exoteric manifesta- 
tion. This thought is also brought out if the root mean- 
ing of the word 'manifestation' is carefully studied. It 
comes from two Latin words, meaning "to touch or handle 
by the hand" (mantis, the hand, and fendere, to touch) , and 
the idea then brought to our minds is the triple thought 
that that which is manifested is that which can be felt, 
contacted, and realised as tangible. Yet in both these in- 
terpretations the most vital part of the concept is lost sight 
of, and we must look elsewhere for a truer definition. To 
my mind, Plutarch conveys the idea of the manifestation 
of the subjective through the medium of the objective form 
in a much more illuminating way than does the dictionary. 
He says : — 

"An idea is a being incorporeal, which has no sub- 
sistence by itself, but gives figure and form unto shape- 
less matter, and becomes the cause of manifestation." 



EVOLUTION OF FORM 33 

Here you have a most interesting sentence, and one of 
real occult significance. It is a sentence which will repay 
careful study and consideration, for it embodies a concept 
that concerns itself not only with that little manifestation, 
the atom of the chemist and the physicist, but of all forms 
that are constituted by their means, including the mani- 
festation of a human being and of the Deity of a solar 
system, that great Life, that all-embracing, universal 
Mind, that vibrant centre of energy, and that great enfold- 
ing consciousness Whom we call God, or Force, or the 
Logos, the Existence Who is expressing Himself through 
the medium of the solar system. 

In the Christian Bible the same thought is borne out 
by St. Paul in a letter to the Church at Ephesus. In the 
second chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians he says: 
"We are his workmanship." Literally, the correct trans- 
lation from the Greek is : "We are his poem, or idea," and 
the thought in the mind of the apostle is that through the 
medium of every human life, or in the aggregate of lives 
which compose a solar system, God is, through the form, 
whatever it may be, working out an idea, a specific concept, 
or detailed poem. A man is an embodied thought, and this 
is also the concept latent in the definition of Plutarch. You 
have therein first the idea of a selfconscious entity, you 
have then to recognise the thought or purpose which that 
entity is seeking to express, and finally, you have the body 
or form which is the sequential result. 

The term Logos, translated as the Word, is frequently 
used in the New Testament, in speaking of the Deity. The 
outstanding passage in which this is the case is the first 
chapter of St. John's Gospel, where the words occur : "In 
the beginnig was the Word, and the Word was with God, 
and the Word was God." Let us consider for a minute the 
meaning of the expression. Its literal translation is 'the 



34 EVOLUTION OF FORM 

Word', and it has been defined as "the rendering in objec- 
tive expression of a concealed thought." If you take any 
noun, or similar word, for instance, and study its objective 
significance, you will find that always a definite thought 
is conveyed to the mind, involving purpose, intent, or per- 
haps some abstract concept. If this same method of study 
can be extended to include the idea of the Deity or the 
Logos, much light may be gained upon this abstruse ques- 
tion of the manifestation of God, the central Intelligence, 
by the means of the material form, whether we see Him 
manifested through the tiny form of a chemical atom, or 
that gigantic physical body of His we call a solar system. 

We found in our lecture last week that there was one 
thing that could be predicated of all atoms, and that scien- 
tists everywhere were coming to recognise one distinguish- 
ing characteristic. They have been shown to possess symp- 
toms of mind and a rudimentary form of intelligence. The 
atom demonstrates the quality of discrimination, of selec- 
tive power, and of ability to attract or repulse. It may 
seem curious to use the word intelligence in connection 
with an atom of chemistry, for instance, but nevertheless 
the root meaning of the word embodies this idea perfectly. 
It comes from two Latin words : inter, between, and legere 
to choose. Intelligence, therefore, is the capacity to think 
or choose, to select, and to discriminate. It is, in reality, 
that abstract, inexplicable something which lies back of 
the great law of attraction and repulsion, one of the basic 
laws of manifestation. This fundamental faculty of intel- 
ligence characterises all atomic matter, and also governs 
the building up of forms, or the aggregation of atoms. 

We have earlier dealt with the atom per se, but have 
in no way considered its building into form, or into that 
totality of forms which we call a kingdom in nature. We 
have considered somewhat the essential nature of the atom, 



EVOLUTION OF FORM 35 

and its prime characteristic of intelligence, and have laid 
our emphasis upon that out of which all the different forms 
as we know them, are built, all forms in the mineral king- 
dom, in the vegetable kingdom, in the animal kingdom, and 
in the human. In the sum total of all forms you have the 
totality of nature as generally understood. 

Let us now extend our idea from the individual forms 
that go to the constitution of any of these four kingdoms 
of nature, and view them as providing that still 
greater form which we call the kingdom itself, and 
thus view that kingdom as a conscious unit, forming 
a homogeneous whole. Thus each kingdom in nature may 
be considered as providing a form through which a con- 
sciousness of some kind or grade can manifest. Thus also, 
the aggregate of animal forms composes that greater form 
which we designate the kingdom itself, and this animal 
kingdom likewise has its place within a still greater body. 
Through that kingdom a conscious life may be seeking ex- 
pression, and through the aggregate of kingdoms a still 
greater subjective Life may be seeking manifestation. 

In all these kingdoms which we are considering — min- 
eral, vegetable, animal and human — we have three factors 
again present, provided, of course, that the basis of our 
reasoning is correct; first, that the original atom is itself 
a life ; secondly, that all forms are built up of a multiplicity 
of lives, and thus a coherent whole is provided through 
which a subjective entity is working out a purpose ; thirdly, 
that the central life within the form is its directing im- 
pulse, the source of its energy, the origin of its activity, 
and that which holds the form together as a unity. 

This thought can be well worked out in connection 
with man, for instance. For the purposes of our lecture, 
man can be denned as that central energy, life, or intelli- 
gence, who works through a material manifestation or 



36 EVOLUTION OF FORM 

form, this form being built up of myriads of lesser lives. 
In this connection a curious phenomenon has been fre- 
quently noticed at the time of death; it was brought very 
specially to my notice some years ago by one of the ablest 
surgical nurses of India. She had for a long time been 
an atheist, but had begun to question the ground of her 
unbelief after several times witnessing this phenomenon. 
She stated to me that, at the moment of death, in several 
cases, a flash of light had been seen by her issuing from the 
top of the head, and that in one particular case (that of a 
girl of apparently very advanced spiritual development 
and great purity and holiness of life) the room had ap- 
peared to be lit up momentarily by electricity. Again, not 
long ago, several of the leading members of the medical 
profession in a large middle west city were approached by 
an interested investigator, by letter, and asked if they 
would be willing to state if they had noted any peculiar 
phenomena at the moment of death. Several replied by 
saying that they had observed a bluish light issuing from 
the top of the head, and one or two added that they had 
heard a snap in the region of the head. In this last instance 
we have a corroboration of the statement in Ecclesiastes, 
where the loosing of the silver cord is mentioned, or the 
breaking of that magnetic link which unites the indwelling 
entity or thinker to his vehicle of expression. In both the 
types of cases above mentioned can apparently be seen an 
ocular demonstration of the withdrawal of the central light 
or life, and the consequent disintegration of the form, and 
the scattering of the myriad lesser lives. 

It may therefore seem to some of us a logical hypo- 
thesis that just as the atom of chemistry is a tiny sphere, 
or form, with a positive nucleus, which holds rotating 
around it the negative electrons, so all forms in all the 
kingdoms of nature are of a similar structure, differing 



EVOLUTION OF FOKM 37 

only in degree of consciousness or intelligence. We can 
therefore regard the kingdoms themselves as the physical 
expression of some great subjective life, and can by logi- 
cal steps come to the recognition that every unit in the 
human family is an atom in the body of that greater unit 
who has been called in some of the Scriptures the "Heaven- 
ly Man." Thus we arrive finally at the concept that the 
solar system is but the aggregate of all kingdoms and all 
forms, and the Body of a Being Who is expressing Him- 
self through it, and utilising it in order to work out a def- 
inite purpose and central idea. In all these extensions of 
our final hypothesis, the same triplicity can be seen; an 
informing Life or Entity manifesting through a form, or a 
multiplicity of forms, and demonstrating discriminative 
intelligence. 

It is not possible to deal with the method where- 
by the forms are built up, or to enlarge upon the 
evolutionary process by means of which atoms are com- 
bined into forms, and the forms themselves collected into 
that greater unit which we call a kingdom in nature. This 
method might be briefly summed up in three terms — 
involution, or the involving of the subjective life in matter, 
the method whereby the indwelling Entity takes to itself 
its vehicle of expression; evolution, or the utilisation of 
the form by the subjective life, its gradual perfecting, and 
the final liberating of the imprisoned life ; and the law of 
attraction and repulsion, whereby matter and spirit are 
co-ordinated, whereby the central life gains experience, 
expands its consciousness, and, through the use of that 
particular form attains self-knowledge and self-control. 
All is carried forward under this basic law. In every 
form you have a central life, or idea, coming into manifes- 
tation, involving itself more and more in substance, cloth- 
ing itself in a form and shape adequate to its need and re- 



38 EVOLUTION OF FORM 

quirement, utilising that form as a means of expression, 
and then — in due course of time — liberating itself from the 
environing form in order to acquire one more suited to its 
need. Thus through every grade of form, spirit or life pro- 
gresses, until the path of return has been traversed, and 
the point of origin achieved. This is the meaning of evolu- 
tion and here lies the secret of the cosmic incarnation. 
Eventually spirit frees itself from form, and attains libera- 
tion plus developed psychical quality and graded expan- 
sions of consciousness. 

We might look at these definite stages, and 
study them very cursorily. We have in the first 
case the process of involution. This is the period in 
which the limiting of the life within the form or sheath 
proceeds, and it is a long slow process, covering millions 
upon millions of years. This great cycle is participated 
in by every type of life. It concerns the life of the Solar 
Logos manifesting through a solar system. It is part of 
the life cycle of the planetary Spirit manifesting through 
such a sphere as our Earth planet; it includes that life 
which we call human, and sweeps into the path of its en- 
ergy the tiny life which functions through an atom of 
chemistry. It is the great process of becoming, and that 
which makes existence and being itself possible. This 
period of limitation, of a gradually increasing imprison- 
ment, and of an ever deeper descent into matter, is suc- 
ceeded by one of adaptation, in which the life and the form 
become intimately inter-related, and subsequent to this is 
the period wherein that inner relation becomes perfected. 
The form is then adequate to the needs of the life, and can 
be utilised. Then, as the life within grows and expands, 
it is paralleled by the crystallisation of the form, which no 
longer suffices as a means of expression. Following upon 
crystallisation, we have the period of disintegration. Limi- 



EVOLUTION OF FORM 39 

tation, adaptation, utilisation, crystallisation, and dis- 
integration,— these are the stages which cover the life of 
any entity, or embodied idea of greater or less degree, 
which seeks expression through matter. 

Let us carry out this thought in connection with the 
human being. The process of limitation can be seen in the 
taking of a physical form, and in those early rebellious 
days, when a man is full of desires, aspirations, longings 
and ideals, which he seems unable to express or to satisfy. 
Then comes the period of adaptation, wherein the man be- 
gins to utilise what he has, and to express himself as best 
he may through the medium of those myriads of lesser 
lives and intelligences which constitute his physical, his 
emotional, and his mental bodies. He energises his three- 
fold form, forcing it to carry out his behests and fulfil his 
purposes, and thus carry out his plan, whether for good 
or evil. This is succeeded by the stage in which he utilises 
the form as far as in him lies, and comes to what we call 
maturity. Finally, in the later stages of life, we have the 
crystallisation of the form, and the man's realisation of its 
inadequacy. Then comes the happy release which we call 
death, that great moment in which the "spirit in prison" 
escapes from the confining walls of its physical form. Our 
ideas about death have been erroneous; we have looked 
upon it as the great and ultimate terror, whereas in reality 
it is the great escape, the entrance into a fuller measure 
of activity, and the release of the life from a crystallised 
vehicle and an inadequate form. 

Thoughts similar to these can be worked out in con- 
nection with all forms, and not only with those in connec- 
tion with the physical body of a human being. These ideas 
can be applied to forms of government, forms of religion, 
and forms of scientific or philosophical thought. It can be 
seen working out in a peculiarly interesting manner in 



40 EVOLUTION OF FORM 

this cycle in which we live. Everything is in a state of 
flnx; the old order changeth, and a period of transition is 
in progress ; the old forms, in every department of thought, 
are disintegrating, but only in order that the life which 
gave them being may escape, and build for itself that which 
will be more satisfactory and adequate. Take, for in- 
stance, the old religious form of the Christian faith. Here 
I must warn you not to misunderstand me. I am not try- 
ing to prove that the spirit of Christianity is inadequate, 
and I am not seeking to demonstrate that its well-tried 
and well-proven truths are erroneous. I am only trying 
to point out that the form through which that spirit seeks 
to express itself has somewhat served its purpose, and is 
proving a limitation. Those same great truths, and those 
same basic ideas, require a more adequate vehicle through 
which to function. Christian thinkers at this time need to 
distinguish very carefully between the vital truths of 
Christianity, and the crystallised form of theology. The 
living impulse was given by the Christ. He enunciated 
these great and eternal truths, and sent them forth to take 
form and meet the need of a suffering world. They were 
limited by the form, and there came a long period where- 
in that form (religious dogmas and doctrines) gradually 
grew and took shape. Centuries ensued wherein the form 
and the life seemed adapted to each other, and the Christ- 
ian ideals expressed themselves through the medium of 
that form. Now the period of crystallisation has set in, 
and the expanding Christian consciousness is finding the 
limitations of the theologians inadequate and restricting. 
The great fabric of dogmas and doctrines, as built up by 
the churchmen and theologians of the ages, must inevitably 
disintegrate, but only in order that the life within may 
escape, build for itself a better and more satisfactory 



EVOLUTION OF FORM 41 

means of expression, and thus measure up to the mission 
upon which it was sent. 

In the different schools of thought everywhere the 
same thing can be seen. All of them are expressing some 
idea by means of a particular form, or set of forms, and 
it is very necessary for us to remember that the triple life 
back of all forms is nevertheless but One, though the 
vehicles of expression are diverse, and ever prove inade- 
quate as time elapses. 

What, then, is the purpose back of this endless process 
of form building, and this combining of the lesser 
forms? What is the reason of it all, and Avhat will prove 
to be the goal? Surely it is the development of quality, 
the expansion of the consciousness, the development of the 
faculty of realisation, the production of the powers of the 
psyche, or the soul, the evolution of intelligence. Surely 
it is the gradual demonstration of the basic idea or purpose 
which that great Entity Whom we call the Logos, or God, 
is working out through the solar system. It is the demon- 
stration of His psychic quality, for God is intelligent Love ; 
and the fulfilment of His determined purpose, for God is 
intelligent loving Will. 

For all the different grades and types of atoms there 
is a goal and a purpose also. There is a goal for the atom 
of chemistry ; there is a point of achievement for the human 
atom, man ; the planetary atom also will some day demon- 
strate its basic purpose, and the great Idea which lies back 
of the solar system will some day be revealed. Is it pos- 
sible for us in a few brief moments of study to get a sound 
conception of what that purpose may be? Perhaps we can 
get some broad, general idea, if we approach the subject 
with sufficient reverence and sensitiveness of outlook, bear- 
ing carefully in mind always that only the ignorant dog- 



42 EVOLUTION OF FORM 

matise, and only the unwise deal in detail when consider- 
ing these stupendous topics. 

We have seen that the atom of chemistry, for instance, 
demonstrates the quality of intelligence; it shows symp- 
toms of discriminative mind, and the rudiments of selective 
capacity. Thus the tiny life within the atomic form is 
demonstrating psychic quality. The atom is then built 
into all the different forms at varying times and stages, 
and each time it gains somewhat according to the force 
and life of the entity who ensouls that form, and preserves 
its homogeneity. Take, for instance, the atom that goes 
to the building of a form in the mineral kingdom ; it shows 
not only discriminative selective mind, but elasticity. 
Then in the vegetable kingdom these two qualities appear, 
but a third is also found, which we might call sensation of 
a rudimentary kind. The initial intelligence of the atom 
has acquired something during the transition from form 
to form and from kingdom to kingdom. Its responsiveness 
to contact, and its general awareness have increased. 
When we come to the study of the evolution of conscious- 
ness we can take this up in greater detail; all I am en- 
deavouring to do tonight is to show that in the vegetable 
kingdom forms built up of atoms show not only discrimi- 
native intelligence and elasticity, but also are capable of 
sensation, or of that which, in the vegetable kingdom, cor- 
responds to emotion or feeling, emotion being but rudi- 
mentary love. Next we have the animal kingdom, in which 
the animal forms show not only all the above qualities, but 
to them is added instinct, or that which will some day blos- 
som into mentality. Finally, we come to the human be- 
ing, who shows all these qualities in far greater degree, 
for the fourth kingdom is but the macrocosm for the three 
lower. Man demonstrates intelligent activity, he is capa- 
ble of emotion or love, and has added yet another factor, 



EVOLUTION OF FORM 43 

that of intelligent will. He is the deity of his own little 
system; he is not only conscious, but he is selfconscious. 
He builds his own body of manifestation, just as does the 
Logos, only on a tiny scale; he controls his little system 
by the great law of attraction and repulsion, as does the 
Logos, and he energises it and synthesises his threefold 
nature into a coherent unit. He is the three in one, and 
the one in three, just as is the Logos. 

There is a future for every atom in the solar system. 
Before the ultimate atom there lies a tremendous goal, and 
as the aeons slip away the life that animates that atom will 
pass through all the varying kingdoms of nature until it 
find its goal in the human kingdom. 

The idea might now be extended somewhat, 
and we might consider that great Entity Who is 
the informing life of the planet, and Who holds 
all the different kingdoms of nature within His con- 
sciousness. May it not be possible that His intelligence, 
as it informs the totality of all groups and kingdoms, is 
the goal for man, the human atom? Perhaps as time pro- 
gresses the scope of his present realisation may also be 
ours, and for His, as for all those great Lives Who inform 
the planets of the solar system, there may be the attain- 
ment of that tremendous reach of consciousness which 
characterises that great Existence Who is the ensouling 
Life of the solar system. May it not be true that among 
the different grades of consciousness, extending, for in- 
stance, from the atom of the chemist and physicist, up to 
the Logos of the solar system, there are no gaps, and no 
abrupt transitions, but there is ever a gradual expansion 
and a gradual evolution from one form of intelligent mani- 
festation to another, and always the life within the form 
gains in quality by means of the experience. 

When we have built this idea into our consciousness, 



44 EVOLUTION OF FORM 

when it is apparent to us that there is purpose and direc- 
tion underlying everything, when we realise that not a 
single thing occurs that is not the outcome of the con- 
scious will of some entity, and that all that happens has 
a definite aim and goal, then we have the clue to ourselves, 
and to all that we see happening around us in the world. 
If, for instance, we realise that we have the building up 
and care of our physical bodies, that we have the control 
of our emotional nature, and the responsibility for the de- 
velopment of our mentality, if we realise that we are the 
energising factors within our bodies, and that when we 
withdraw from those bodies they disintegrate and fall to 
pieces ; then perhaps we have the clue to what the inform- 
ing Life of the planet may be doing, as He works through 
forms of every kind (continents, civilisations, religions, 
and organisations) upon this earth; to what has gone 
on in the moon, which is now a disintegrating form, to 
what is going on in the solar system, and to what will hap- 
pen in the solar system when the Logos withdraws from 
that which is, for Him, but a temporary manifestation. 

Let us now make practical application of these 
thoughts. We are living at this time in a period in which 
all the forms of thought seem breaking up, in which the 
religious life of the peoples is no longer what it was, in 
which dogma and doctrine of every kind come under criti- 
cism. Many of the old forms of scientific thought are like- 
wise disintegrating, and the foundations of the old philoso- 
phies seem to be shaken. Our lot is cast in one of the most 
difficult periods of the world's history, a period which is 
characterised by the breakup of nations, the smashing of 
old relationships and ties, and the apparently imminent 
disruption of civilisation. We need to encourage ourselves 
by remembering that all this is occurring just because the 
life within those forms is becoming so strong that it finds 



EVOLUTION OF FOKM 45 

them a prison and a limitation ; and we must recollect that 
this transition period is the time of the greatest promise 
that the world has ever seen. There is no room for pessi- 
mism and despair, but only for the profoundest optimism. 
Many today are upset and distraught because the founda- 
tions seem to be shaken, the carefully reared and deeply 
cherished structures of religious thought and belief, and 
of philosophical finding seem in danger of falling, yet our 
anxiety exists simply because we have been too much en- 
grossed with the form, and too much occupied with our 
prison, and if disruption has set in, it is only in order that 
the life may build for itself new forms and thereby evolve. 
The work of the destroyer is as much the work of God as 
that of the constructor, and the great god of destruction 
has to smash and rend the forms in order that the work 
of the builder may become possible, and the spirit able 
more adequately to express itself. 

To many of us these ideas may seem novel, fantastic, 
and untenable. Yet even if they are only hypotheses, they 
may prove interesting and give us a possible clue to the mys- 
tery. We see civilisations disrupted, we see the religious 
fabrics tottering, we see philosophies successfully at- 
tacked, we see the foundations of material science shaken. 
Yet, after all, what are civilisations? What are the re- 
ligions? What are the great races? Simply the forms 
through which the great threefold central Life, Who in- 
forms our planet, seeks to express Himself. Just as we 
express ourselves through the medium of a physical, an 
emotional, and a mental nature, so He expresses Himself 
through the totality of the kingdoms of nature, and 
through the nations, races, religions, sciences and philoso- 
phies, in existence at this time. As His life pulsates 
through every department of His being we, as cells and 
atoms within that greater manifestation, follow each tran- 




46 EVOLUTION OF FORM 

sition, and are swept along from one stage to another. As 
time progresses, and onr consciousness expands, we shall 
enter more and more into a knowledge of His plan as He 
is working it out, and shall eventually be in a position to 
collaborate with Him in His essential purpose. 

To sum up the central thought of this lecture: Let 
us endeavour to realise that there is no such thing as in- 
organic matter, but that every atom is a life. Let us re- 
alise that all forms are living forms, and that each is but 
the vehicle of expression for some indwelling entity. Let 
us seek to comprehend that this is likewise true of the 
aggregate of all forms. Thus we have the clue to ourselves, 
and perhaps the clue to the mystery of the solar system. 



LECTURE IV. 
THE EVOLUTION OF MAN, THE THINKER. 



This is the fourth in the series of talks which we have 
had the past month, and perhaps by means of them we have 
been able to get an idea of one of the fundamental prin- 
ciples which underly evolution, and which can be seen 
working out in the solar system. 

Let us first briefly recapitulate, in order that we may 
approach our subject tonight with certain ideas clearly 
formulated. We have seen that our interpretation of the 
processes of nature necessitates a threefold concept, which 
concerns itself with the life aspect, with the substance 
aspect, and with their close interrelation through the 
faculty of intelligence manifesting as consciousness of 
some kind or other. This interrelation will produce, final- 
ly, the perfected expression (through the medium of mat- 
ter) of the conscious purpose of some indwelling entity. 
I seek to emphasise the fact that the goal of my endeavour 
is to put before you a hypothesis and a suggestion which 
may have within it the germ of a possible truth, and which 
seems to some of us the clearest way of explaining the mys- 
tery of the universe. We have seen that the three parts 
of the one great whole are Spirit, or Life, manifesting 
through a second factor which we call substance or matter, 
and utilising a third factor, which we call the intelligence. 
In the gradual synthesis of these three component aspects 
of deity can be seen the evolution of consciousness. 



47 



48 EVOLUTION OF MAN 

We next arrived at a more technical discussion of the 
subject of substance itself, dealing not with the differ- 
entiated substances or elements, but with the concept of a 
primordial substance, and endeavouring to get back as far 
as possible toward that which has been called by Sir Will- 
iam Crookes "protyle", or that which lies back of the tangi- 
ble, or objective. We considered the atom, and found that 
its latest definition was that it was in reality a unit of 
force or energy consisting of a positive charge of electricity 
energising a number of negative particles. It became ap- 
parent to us that the tiny atom of the chemist and the 
physicist was within itself a solar system, with the same 
general conformation as the greater system, demonstrating 
a similar activity and governed by analogous laws. We 
found that it had a central sun, and that around this 
central sun, pursuing their definite orbits, might be seen 
the electrons. We noted, also, the fact that the elements 
differ only according to the number and the arrangement 
of these electrons around the central positive charge. 
From this we passed on to the consideration of the soul, 
or the psyche, of the atom, and found that scientists 
recognise the truth that atoms themselves possess quality, 
show symptoms of mind or intelligence, and can discrim- 
inate, select, and choose. 

We then proceeded to weave what appeared to be a 
fairytale. We pictured the human being as an atom, and 
traced the resemblance of man to an atom ; we found that 
he attracted and held within his sphere of influence the 
matter of his various bodies, mental, emotional and 
physical, in exactly the same way as the electrons were 
held revolving around their central focal point. The idea 
proved capable of still further expansion, and we turned 
our attention to the planet, picturing it as similar in its 
nature to the human atom, and to the ultimate atom of 



EVOLUTION OF MAN 49 

substance, being but the expression of a life manifesting 
through a spheroidal form and working out an intelligent 
purpose. Then we reached our consummation, and viewed 
the solar system as a cosmic atom, energised by the life of 
the Logos. 

We have, therefore, under consideration, four kinds 
of atoms : 

First, the atom of the chemist and physicist. 

Secondly, the human atom, or man. 

Thirdly, the planetary atom, energised by a planetary 

Logos, or the Heavenly Man. 
Fourthly, the solar atom, indwelt by the solar Logos, 

or the Deity. 

If we are right in our fundamental concept, if there 
is a grain of reality in our hypothesis, and if there is a 
substratum of truth in our idea of the atom from which 
the elements are compounded, it is to be recognised as a 
life working intelligently through the medium of a 
form. Then it can perhaps be proven that man is equally 
a life or centre of energy, manifesting through his bodies ; 
then it can perhaps be demonstrated that a planet is also 
the medium of expression of a still greater centre of en- 
ergy, and further, under the law of analogy, it may per- 
haps be proven at some distant time that there is a God 
or central life back of material nature, and an Entity Who 
functions consciously through the solar system. 

At our last lecture we took up another phase of mani- 
festation. We studied the atom itself, and considered it 
as it entered into relationship with other atoms, and 
through their mutual coherence formed groups or con- 
geries of atoms. In other words, we considered the atom 
as it was built into the different forms in the various king- 
doms of nature, and found that, in the process of evolution, 



50 EVOLUTION OF MAN 

atoms themselves gravitate towards other and greater 
central points, becoming in their turn electrons. Thus, 
every form is but an aggregate of smaller lives. 

Very briefly then we touched upon the different king- 
doms of nature, and traced the development of the soul, or 
the psyche in all of them. Of the atom we have already 
predicated intelligence, or discriminative power, and we 
found that in the building up of forms in the mineral, 
vegetable, and animal kingdoms what we understand as 
sensation begins to appear, and we then have the rudi- 
ments of embryonic emotion, or feeling — the physical 
plane reflection of love. Thus we have one aspect of the 
threefold nature of God, intelligence, demonstrating 
through the atom ; and through the form we have the love, 
or attractive quality manifesting. This can also be ex- 
pressed in the recognition that in these two aspects of the 
central divine life you have the third person of the Logoic 
Trinity co-operating with the second ; you have the intelli- 
gent activity of divinity, or the Holy Spirit aspect, work- 
ing in connection with the second aspect, or the Son, Who 
is the builder of forms. This is brought out in an inter- 
esting manner in Proverbs viii. where Wisdom cries aloud 
(Wisdom in the Old Testament representing the Christ 
aspect), and after pointing out that He was with God be- 
fore ever there was creation, goes on to say that when "He 
appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by Him 
as the master worker or builder". Students would do well 
to study this chapter in connection with the ideas that we 
are here formulating, being careful to ascertain the exact 
translation. 

We now come to the consideration of our subject for 
tonight, that of the evolution of man, the thinker. We 
shall see that in man comes in another aspect of divinity. 
Browning, in Paracelsus, covers the subject that we have 



EVOLUTION OF MAN 51 

been considering in a most interesting manner, summing 

it up as follows : 

"Thus He (God) dwells in all, 

To man — the consummation of this scheme 

Of being, the completion of this sphere 

Of life : whose attributes had here and there 

Been scattered o'er the visible world before, 

Asking to be combined, dim fragments meant 

To be united in some wondrous whole, 

Imperfect qualities throughout creation, 

Suggesting some one creature yet to make, 

Some point where all those scattered rays should meet 

Convergent in the faculties of man." 

Having therefore discovered two aspects of divinity 
in the atom and in the form, we shall find the triplicity 
perfected in man. We have been told that man is made in 
the image of God, and we would therefore expect to see 
him reflecting the threefold nature of the Logos. He must 
demonstrate intelligence, he must show forth love, and he 
must manifest will. Let us consider some of the defini- 
tions of man as found in the dictionary and elsewhere. 
The definition found in the Standard Dictionary is a pro- 
foundly uninteresting one, and is as follows: — Man is 
"an individual of the human race", and then follows a 
long list of suggestive derivations of the word man, run- 
ning through every known tongue, and concluding with 
the statement that many of them are improbable. That 
derivation which ascribes the definition of man to the 
Sanskrit root 'man', the one who thinks, is to my mind 
the most satisfying. Mrs. Besant, in one of her books, 
gives an exceptionally clear definition as follows: "Man 
is that being in whom highest spirit and lowest matter are 
linked together by intelligence." Man is here pictured as 



52 EVOLUTION OF MAN 

the meeting place for all the three lines of evolution, spirit, 
matter, and linking intellect; he is shown to be the one 
who unifies the self, the not-self, and the relation between 
them, and he is seen to be the knower, that which is known, 
and knowledge. What is the purpose of the intellect, or of 
knowledge? Surely its purpose is to adapt the material 
form to the need and requirements of the indwelling 
spirit; surely it is to enable the thinker within the body 
to utilise it intelligently, and for some definite purpose; 
and surely it exists in order that the central energising 
unit may constructively control its negative aspect. We 
are all of us entities, ensouling a form, and through the 
intelligence endeavouring to utilise that form for a specific 
purpose which exists within the conscious will of the true 
self. 

In a very old occult book — so old that the date of it 
cannot be ascertained — can be found a definition of man 
which is very illuminating, and in line with the thought 
that we are seeking to develop tonight. Man is there de- 
fined as : "the Life and the lives." We have seen that the 
atom is a life, manifesting by means of the little sphere 
of which it is the centre. We have seen that all forms are 
an aggregate of lives, built up into the mineral, vegetable, 
and animal kingdoms. Now we can pass to the next 
stage on this great ladder of evolution, and we will then 
find that the human being is the logical sequence that 
grows out of all these earlier developments. First, the 
primordial stuff, essentially intelligent energy; next, 
atomic matter, in all its varying activity forming the 
elemental combination; then the form, the aggregate of 
these atoms, up to the dweller within the form, who is not 
only active intelligence, not only inherent attraction and 
love, but is also a purposeful will. This "dweller within" 
took possession of the form when it had reached a certain 



EVOLUTION OF MAN 53 

stage of preparedness, and when the component lives had 
reached a certain vibratory capacity; he is now utilising 
it, and repeating, within his own sphere of influence, the 
work of the atom of matter ; he demonstrates, nevertheless, 
not in one way, nor in two, but in three. In man, there- 
fore, in deed and in truth, you have what the Christian 
would term the "image of God." For, as must be apparent 
to all thinkers, the only way in which we can know God 
is through the study of His nature, or His psychic quality. 
We know that God is intelligence, we know that He is 
love, or the great attractive force of the solar system, and 
we know that He is the great will or purpose back of all 
manifestation. In every Scripture in the world the Deity 
is pictured under these three aspects, and manifests 
through nature in this triple manner. 

The evolution of substance is a thing of gradual 
growth; it is in time supplemented by the slow working out 
of the inner subjective quality of the life of God, and thus 
His essential nature is demonstrated. First, you have one 
aspect demonstrating, then another slowly appears, and 
finally the third can be seen, and you have the stupendous 
combination and consummation, the human being. He 
synthesises and blends the three aspects, uniting them in 
himself. He is the totality of the divine attributes, though 
as yet they are largely embryonic, and he has to repeat 
within his cycle of evolution the identical processes that 
the atom itself has followed. Just as the atom pursues its 
own internal course, and just as it also has later to be 
drawn into and to merge and blend with other atoms in 
the formation of a group, so the human atom equally has 
to find his place within a greater form. 

Let us, therefore, consider for a little what is the 
method of the evolutionary process for a human being. We 
have seen that in him the three lines converge, and that 



54 EVOLUTION OF MAN 

he is a point of synthesis, with one aspect as yet predomi- 
nant, that of the intelligence, with the second aspect of 
love-wisdom just beginning to make its presence felt, and 
with the highest aspect of spiritual will as yet purely 
embryonic. 

We have, nearly all of us, been brought up in the be- 
lief in what is called "the fall of man". There are few 
these days who believe the story of the fall as it is given 
in the first chapter of Genesis, and we most of us credit it 
as having an allegorical interpretation. What is the occult 
truth underlying this curious story? Simply that the truth 
about the fall of the spirit into matter is conveyed by 
means of a picture to the infant mentality of man. The 
process of the converging of these lines is a twofold one. 
You have the descent into matter of the entity, of the cen- 
tral life, and the incarnation of spirit, and then you have 
the working up, out of matter, of that life or spirit, plus 
all that has been gained through the utilisation of form. 
By experimenting with matter, by dwelling within the 
form, by the energising of substance, by the going out of 
the Garden of Eden (the place where there is do scope for 
necessary development), and by the wandering of the 
Prodigal Son in the far country, you have the various 
stages which are pictured in the Christian Bible where 
man makes the discovery that he is not the form, but that 
he is the one who utilises it. He is intelligence, and there- 
fore he is made in the image of the third Person of the 
Trinity ; he is love, and through him the love aspect of the 
Deity will some day perfectly manifest, and he will be able 
to say with his elder Brother, the Christ, in reply to the 
demand "Lord, show us the Father", that "he that hath 
seen me hath seen the Father", for God is Love ; and final- 
ly, through him the highest aspect, the will of God, will 



EVOLUTION OF MAN 55 

become manifest, and he will be perfect, even as his Father 
in heaven is perfect. 

Just as in the evolution of substance three stages 
could be seen,— that of atomic energy, of group coherence, 
and of eventual synthesis, — so in the evolution of man will 
the same appear. You will have, in the early stages of 
human evolution, that which we might call the atomic 
stage, in which man comes to a gradual recognition that he 
is a selfconscious unit, with an individuality all his own. 
Anyone who has brought up children knows that stage 
well. It can be seen in that constant utterance of "my, my, 
my," the stage of appropriation for himself, with no 
thought of any other self. Children are naturally, advis- 
edly, and wisely selfish. It is the stage of the gradual 
recognition of separative existence, and of the utilisation 
ever more potently by the human atom of its own internal 
atomic force. The infant human being rebels against the 
enforced guardianship of those who seek to protect it, and 
considers itself sufficient unto itself. This can be seen 
in the individual and the race. 

Then, as life goes on, the man passes out of 
the atomic stage to a higher and a better one, 
when he becomes cognisant of his group relation- 
ships, when he becomes aware that he has group responsi- 
bilities, and that he has functions to work out with other 
separate atoms. The group consciousness begins to make 
itself felt. Thus the human atom finds its place within 
the group, the larger unit to which it belongs, and the 
love aspect begins to show itself. The man has passed out 
of the atomic stage into that of group coherence. 

Later comes the stage when the man begins to realise 
that he has not only responsibilities to the group, but that 
there is something greater still. He realises that he is a 
part of a great universal life which underlies all groups, 



56 EVOLUTION OF MAN 

that lie is not just a universal atom, that he is not just 
part of a group, but that, after merging his identity with 
the group — although never losing it — the group itself has 
to be blended again with the consciousness of that great 
Identity Who is the synthesis of them all. Thus he ar- 
rives at the final stage of intelligent appreciation of divine 
unity. 

This triple idea can be found summed up in the Bible 
in a rather interesting phrase, where Jehovah says to 
Moses, the representative man, "I am that I am". If you 
split this verse into its three parts you have what I have 
been seeking to bring out tonight: First, the atomic 
consciousness, I AM ; then the group, I AM THAT ; a con- 
sciousness that he is not just a separated individual, not 
only a selfcentred unit, not only a self-conscious entity, 
but that he is something still greater. Man then reaches 
the recognition which will lead him to sacrifice his 
identity in the service of the group, and to merge his con- 
sciousness in that of the group. Of such a conscious union 
we know practically nothing as yet. This is suc- 
ceeded by the still greater stage, when I AM THAT I AM 
will be for us not an impossible ideal, and a visionary 
concept, but a fundamental reality, when man in the aggre- 
gate will recognise himself as an expression of the uni- 
versal life, and the group consciousness itself will be 
merged in that of the Aggregate of all groups. 

We suppose, and we hope, that we are passing rapid- 
ly out of the atomic stage, and that our sphere of influ- 
ence and interest is not bounded by our atomic wall, but that 
we are becoming (to use a now familiar term) radio-active. 
When this is the case we shall not be circumscribed and 
limited within our own shell, and the narrow confines of 
our own individual life, but we shall begin to radiate, and 



EVOLUTION OF MAN 57 

to contact other atoms, thus reaching the second stage, the 
attractive. 

What, therefore, is the goal ahead for each one of ns? 
What is the goal for these different atoms with which we 
are concerning ourselves? We are told in some of the 
old Eastern Scriptures, that the goal for the atom of sub- 
stance is selfconsciousness. What is, therefore, the goal 
for the human atom, who is already selfconscious, who is 
already individualised, and guiding himself by means of 
his will? What lies ahead for man? Simply the expan- 
sion of his consciousness to include the consciousness of 
the great life, or being, in whose body he is himself a cell. 
Our physical body is, for instance, made up of innumerable 
lesser lives, or atoms, each one of them separated from its 
neighbour, each one of them distinguished by its own in- 
herent activity, and each one forming a sphere which holds 
within its periphery other lesser spheres or electrons. 

We have seen that man is the positive charge, and 
holds his multiplicity of atoms, or lesser lives, energised 
and bound together into coherent forms. At death, when 
the spirit aspect withdraws itself, the form disintegrates, 
and is dissolved, and these little conscious lives, having 
fulfilled their function, dissipate. The consciousness of 
the atom within the body is a very different thing to the 
consciousness of a man, and this we can realise with very 
little thought. If we concede that man is a cell in a greater 
sphere, may it not be possible that there is a conscious- 
ness which is to the man what his consciousness is to the 
cell in his body? Is it not -possible that we may have ahead 
of us the achievement of that consciousness in the same 
sense as the atom of substance may some day achieve the 
consciousness of a human being? May it not be that this 
is what Browning had in his mind when he said : "Man- 
kind, made up of all the single men ; in such a synthesis the 



58 EVOLUTION OF MAN 

story ends." Here he holds up before us a concept of a 
greater Man, who is the synthesis or sum total of all the 
lesser units. Perhaps that synthesis may be the great Life, 
or the planetary Entity Who lies back of our planetary 
manifestation, and Who is the sum total of the group con- 
sciousness. I suggest that just as self consciousness is the 
goal for all the sub-human forms of life, and as group con- 
sciousness, or the consciousness of the Heavenly Man, is 
the goal for the human being, so for him, also, there may 
be a goal, and for him the achievement may be the develop- 
ment of God consciousness. So for him comes the struggle 
to evolve the realisation which is that of the solar Logos. 
Thus can be seen the unity of consciousness from the 
most minute atom up to the Deity Himself. Thus opens up 
before us a wonderful picture, and a vista of possibility. 
Thus may the life of God be seen in its essential triple 
manifestation, working out in an ever expanding con- 
sciousness; demonstrating in the atom of substance, and 
expanding through the medium of form, until it finds one 
point of culmination in man, then proceeding on its course 
till it demonstrates as the planetary consciousness, which 
is the sum total of all the states of consciousness upon 
our planet, the earth, until we arrive at the fundamental 
basic Life, Who holds all the planetary evolutions syn- 
thesised within His greater sphere, the solar system. Thus, 
in summing up, we have four states of intelligent activity, 
which we might term consciousness, selfconsciousness, 
group consciousness, and God consciousness. These dem- 
onstrate through four types of atoms, first, the chemical 
atom and all atomic forms; secondly, the human atom; 
then, the planetary atom, and finally the all-encompassing 
solar atom. Ensouling these atomic forms can be seen 
manifesting all sub-human types of life, from the life of 
the atom of substance to the informing life of the higher 



EVOLUTION OF MAN 59 

animals, then that life which we call human, that of man, 
the thinker; next, the Heavenly Man, and then the great 
Life of the solar system, Whom the Christian calls God, 
or the Logos. 

Browning expresses this idea of the gradual expan- 
sion of the consciousness of a human being into something 
greater and vaster in the following words : 

"When all the race is perfected alike 

As man, that is ; all tended to mankind, 

And, man produced, all has its end thus far; 

But in completed man begins anew 

A tendency to God. Prognostics told 

Man's near approach; so in man's self arise 

August anticipations, symbols, types 

Of a dim splendour ever on before 

In that eternal circle life pursues. 

For men begin to pass their nature's bound, 

And find new hopes and cares which fast supplant 

Their proper joys and griefs ; they grow too great 

For narrow creeds of right and wrong, which fade 

Before the unmeasured thirst for good : while peace 

Rises within them ever more and more. 

Such men are even now upon the earth 

Serene amid the half-formed creatures round 

Who should be saved by them and joined with them." 



LECTURE V. 
THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 



Last week we studied, very inadequately, the evolution 
of man, the thinker, the tenant of the bodies, and the one 
who uses them during the cycle of evolution. We saw 
that he was the summation of the evolutions which had 
preceded him. We led up to our study of that evolution 
in two previous lectures in which we considered first the 
substance, or atomic matter prior to its building up into 
a form, or the tiny atom before it was incorporated in a 
vehicle of some kind. Then we studied the building of 
forms by means of the great law of attraction, which 
gathered the atoms together, causing them to cohere and 
vibrate in unison, and thus producing a form, or an aggre- 
gation of atoms. We came to the recognition that in atom- 
ic substance we had one aspect of the Godhead, of the 
Deity, and of the central Force or energy of the solar sys- 
tem, manifesting under the aspect of intelligence, and we 
saw that in the form aspect of nature another quality of 
the Deity became manifest, that of love or attraction, the 
cohesive force which holds the form unified. Then we 
studied the human being, or man, and noted how in him all 
the three divine aspects met ; and recognised man as a cen- 
tral will manifesting through a form composed of atoms, 
and demonstrating the three qualities of God, that of in- 
telligence, of love-wisdom, and of will or power. 

Today we are stepping out of the matter aspect of 
manifestation which we have been dealing with in the pre- 
vious lectures, into the consideration of the consciousness 
within the form. We have seen that the atom may be re- 



60 



EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 61 

garded as the central life, manifesting through, a 
spheroidal form, and showing the quality of mind ; but the 
human atom may also be considered as a central positive 
life, utilising a form and demonstrating the different 
qualities we have enumerated ; and then we said that, if we 
were right in our hypothesis about the atom, if we were 
right in considering the human being as an atom, then we 
might extend this primary conception to the planet, and 
say that within the planetary atom there is a great Life, 
manifesting through a form, and showing specific qualities 
whilst working out a specified aim; and we extended this 
same concept also to the great sphere of the solar system, 
and to the Deity Who indwells it. 

Let us take up the question of consciousness itself, 
and study the problem a little and concern ourselves with 
the reaction of the life within the form. If I can thus give 
you a few general ideas in line with what has been earlier 
said, I shall be able to lay another stone upon the structure 
I am endeavouring to build. 

The word consciousness comes from two Latin words : 
con, with; and scio, to know; and means literally 'that 
with which we know'. If you take a dictionary and look 
up this word you will find it defined somewhat as follows : 
"The state of being aware", or the condition of perceiving, 
the ability to respond to stimuli, the faculty of recognising 
contacts, and the power to synchronise vibration. All 
these phrases might be included in any definition of con- 
sciousness, but the one I want to lay emphasis upon this 
evening is that which the Standard Dictionary gives, and 
which I have earlier quoted. The average thinker who 
takes up the majority of the text-books dealing with this 
subject, is apt to find them very confusing, for they divide 
consciousness and the state of being aware into numerous 
divisions and subdivisions, until one is left in a state of 



62 EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 

complete bewilderment. Tonight we will only touch upon 
three types of consciousness, which we might enumerate 
as follows: Absolute consciousness, universal conscious- 
ness, and individual consciousness, and of these three it is 
only possible, really, to define two in any way with clarity. 

Absolute consciousness, to the ordinary thinker, is 
practically impossible of recognition. It has been defined 
in one book as, "that consciousness in which everything is, 
the possible as well as the actual", and concerns everything 
that can be possibly conceived of as having occurred, or 
occurring, or going to occur. This is, possibly, absolute 
consciousness, and from the standpoint of the human 
being is the consciousness of God, Who contains 
within Himself the past, the present, and the future. 
What, then, is universal consciousness? It might be 
defined as consciousness, thinking time and space, con- 
sciousness with the idea of location and succession in- 
volved within it, or, in reality, group consciousness, the 
group itself forming either a greater or a lesser unit. 
Finally, individual consciousness may be defined as just 
as much of the universal consciousness as a separated 
unit can contact and can conceive of for itself. 

Now, to understand these vague expressions — abso- 
lute, universal, and individual consciousness — it might be 
helpful if I endeavoured somewhat to illustrate. It might 
be done as follows : In our earlier lectures we have seen 
that we must consider the atom in the human body as a 
little entity, a tiny, intelligent life, and a microscopic, ac- 
tive sphere. Now taking that little cell as our starting 
point we may get, by its means, some concept of what these 
three types of consciousness are, by viewing them from the 
standpoint of the atom and man. Individual consciousness 
to the tiny atom in a man's body would be its own vibratory 
life, its own internal activity, and all that specifically con- 



EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 63 

cerns itself. Universal consciousness to the little cell might 
be considered as the consciousness of the entire physical 
body, viewing it as the unit which incorporates the atom. 
Absolute consciousness to the atom might be considered as 
the consciousness of the thinking man who is energising the 
body. That would be to the atom something so remote to 
its own inner internal life as to be practically inconceiv- 
able and unknown, yet it nevertheless sweeps into the line 
of its will the form and the atom within the form, and all 
that concerns them. This idea has only to be extended to 
man, considered as an atom or cell within the body of a 
great Entity, and one can then work out along similar lines 
this conception of a threefold consciousness. It might here 
be wise if we were to come down and consider more prac- 
tical matters than absolute consciousness. 

Occidental science is coming gradually to the con- 
clusion of the esoteric philosophy of the East, that con- 
sciousness must be predicated not only of the animal and 
of the human being, but that it must be recognised also as 
extending through the vegetable on into the mineral king- 
dom, and that self consciousness must be regarded as the 
consummation of the evolutionary growth of consciousness 
in the three lower kingdoms. It is not possible in the short 
time now at my disposal, to go into that most fascinating 
study of the development of consciousness in the animal 
kingdom, in the vegetable kingdom, and its appearance al- 
so in the mineral kingdom; we should find, should we do 
so, that even minerals show symptoms of awareness, of re- 
action to stimuli ; that they manifest signs of fatigue, and 
that it is possible to poison a mineral and to murder it, 
much as you can murder a human being. The fact that 
flowers have consciousness is being more readily rec- 
ognised, and articles of very deep interest have been pub- 
lished on the consciousness of plants, opening up a very 



64 EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 

wide range of thought. We have seen that in atomic 
matter the only thing that we can safely predicate is that 
it shows intelligence, the power to select, and to discrim- 
inate. This is the predominant feature of consciousness 
as it manifests through the mineral kingdom. In the vege- 
table kingdom another quality appears, that of sensation 
or feeling of a rudimentary nature. It is responsive in a 
different way to the mineral. In the animal kingdom a 
third reaction appears; not only is the animal showing- 
signs of sensation in greatly increased degree to the similar 
response in the vegetable kingdom, but it also shows signs 
of intellect, or embryo mind. Instinct is a recognised 
faculty of all animal units, and the word comes from the 
same root as the word "instigate." When the power to 
instigate begins within any animal form it is a sign that 
an embryo mentality is beginning to manifest. In all these 
kingdoms you have different grades and types of conscious- 
ness showing themselves, whilst in man you have 
the first symptoms of selfconsciousness, or the faculty 
in man whereby he becomes aware that he is a separated 
identity, that he is the indwelling impulse within the body, 
and the one who is in process of becoming aware by means 
of these bodies. This has been long taught in the East, and 
"esoteric philosophy teaches that everything lives and is 
conscious, but that not all life and consciousness is similar 
to the human", and it also emphasises the fact that "vast 
intervals exist between the consciousness of the atom and 
of the flower, between that of a flower and a man, between 
that of a man and a God." As Browning has said : "In 
man begins anew a tendency to God." He is not a God 
yet, but a God in the making ; he is working out the image 
of God, and will some day produce it in perfection. He is 
the one who is seeking to demonstrate the subjective, 
divine, threefold life through the medium of the objective. 



EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 65 

The method of the evolutionary development of con- 
sciousness in a human being is but a repetition on a higher 
turn of the spiral, of the two stages which we noted in the 
evolution of the atom, that of atomic energy and of group 
coherence. In the world at present can be seen the human 
family at the atomic stage of manifestation, leading on to 
a goal not yet achieved, the group stage. 

If there is one thing apparent to all of us who are in 
any way interested in the faculty of awareness, and who 
are in the habit of noting that which passes around us, it 
is that of the different grades of mentality which we meet 
everywhere, and the different types of consciousness among 
men. We meet people who are alert, alive, aware of all 
that is going on, keenly conscious, responsive to thought 
currents of various kinds in human affairs, and conscious 
of contacts of every kind ; then we meet people who seem to 
be asleep ; there is apparently so little that interests them ; 
they seem utterly unaware of contact; they are yet in a 
stage of inertia, and are not capable of responding to much 
outer stimuli ; they are not mentally alive. One notices it, 
also, in children; some respond so quickly, while others 
we call stupid. It is not really that one is more or less 
essentially stupid than another; it is simply due to the 
inner stage of evolution of the child, to its more frequent 
incarnations, and the longer period that it has been oc- 
cupied in becoming aware. 

Let us now take the two stages, the atomic and the 
form stage, and see how the consciousness of the human 
being develops, bearing ever in mind that in the human 
atom is stored up all that has been gained in the earlier 
stages in the three lower kingdoms of nature. Man is the 
gainer by that vast evolutionary process which lies behind 
him. He starts with all that has been gained therein latent 
within him. He is selfconscious, and has before him a 



66 EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 

definite goal, the attainment of group consciousness. For 
the atom of substance the goal had been the attainment of 
selfconsciousness. For the human being the goal is a 
greater Consciousness, and a wider range of awareness. 

The atomic stage which we are now considering is, for 
us, a peculiarly interesting one, because it is the stage in 
which the majority of the human family find themselves. 
In it we pass through the period (a most necessary one) 
of self-centredness, that cycle in which the man is prin- 
cipally concerned with his own affairs, with that which 
primarily interests him, and lives his own intense, internal, 
vibratory life. For a long period back of us, and perhaps 
at the present stage, (for I do not believe that many of 
us would feel insulted if we were not regarded as having 
attained perfection, or having achieved the goal) we are 
most of us intensely selfish, and only mentally interested 
in the things that are going on in the world, and then prob- 
ably because our hearts are touched, and ive do not like 
being uncomfortable, or we are interested because it is the 
fashion ; and yet, in spite of this mental attitude, our whole 
attention is focussed upon the things which concern our 
own individual life. We are in the atomic stage, intense- 
ly active in connection with our own personal problems. 
Watch the throngs in the streets of any great city, and 
you will see everywhere people in the atomic stage, centred 
entirely in themselves, occupied only with their own busi- 
ness, intent upon their own pleasure getting, desirous only 
of having a good time, and only incidentally occupied with 
affairs which concern the group. This is a necessary and 
protective stage, and one of essential value to every unit 
of the human family. The realisation of this, therefore, 
will surely lead us all to be patient with our brothers and 
sisters who may so often irritate us. 

What are the two factors whereby we evolve in and 



EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 67 

out of the atomic stage. In the Orient for many ages the 
method of evolution has been regarded as a twofold one. 
A man has been taught that he evolves and becomes aware 
first by means of the five senses, and later through the de- 
velopment of the faculty of discrimination, coupled with 
dispassion. Here in the West we have primarily empha- 
sised the five senses, and have not taught that discrimina- 
tion which is so essential. If you watch the development 
of a little child you will become aware, for instance, that 
a baby develops the five senses in a certain ordered se- 
quence, usually. The first sense it develops is hearing; 
it will move its head when there is a noise. Then the next 
sense to be noted is that of touch, and it begins to feel about 
with its little hands. The third sense which seems to 
awaken is that of sight. I do not mean by this that a baby 
cannot see, or that it is born blind, like a kitten, but it 
is often several weeks before a baby consciously sees and 
looks with recognition. The faculty has always been there, 
but there has been no realisation. So it is with the graded 
expansions of consciousness and realisations that lie ahead 
of man today. In these three paramount, or major senses, 
hearing, touch, and sight, you have a very interesting 
analogy to, and connection with the threefold manifesta- 
tion of Deity, the self, the not-self, and the relation be- 
tween. The self, occultly, hears and responds to vibra- 
tion, thus realising Itself. It becomes aware of the not- 
self, and of its tangibility, through touch, but it is only 
when sight or conscious recognition comes in that the re- 
lation between the two is established. Two more senses 
are utilised by the self in making its contacts, those of 
taste and smell, but they are not so essential to the de- 
velopment of intelligent awareness as are the other three. 
Through these five senses we make every contact that it 
is possible to make upon the physical plane ; through them 



68 EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 

we learn, we grow, we become aware, and we develop; 
through them all the great instincts are evolved; they are 
the great protective senses, not only enabling us to con- 
tact our environment, but also protecting us from that 
environment. 

Having, then, learnt to be intelligent units by means of 
these five senses, and having, through their medium, ex- 
panded our consciousness, we reach a certain crisis, and 
another factor comes in, that of intelligent discrimina- 
tion. Here I am referring to the discrimination which a 
self conscious unit demonstrates. I refer to that conscious 
choice which you and I evidence, and which we will be 
forced to utilise as the power of evolution drives us on 
to the point where we will learn to distinguish between 
the self and the not-self, between the real and the unreal, 
between the life within the form, and the form which it 
uses, between the knower and that which is known. Here 
we have the whole object of evolution, the attainment of 
the consciousness of the real self through the medium of 
the not-self. 

We pass through a long period or cycle of many 
lives, wherein we identify ourselves with the form, 
and are so one with the not-self that we recognise no dif- 
ference, being entirely occupied with the things which are 
transient and impermanent. It is this identification with 
the not-self which leads to all the pain, dissatisfaction, 
and sorrow in the world, and yet we must remember that 
through this reaction of the self to the not-self we inevita- 
bly learn, and finally break loose from the impermanent 
and the unreal. This cycle of identification with the un- 
real parallels the stage of individual consciousness. As 
the atom of substance has to find its way into some form, 
and add its quota of vitality to a greater unit, so through 
the evolutionary development of consciousness the human 



EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 69 

atom has likewise to reach a point where it recognises its 
place in a greater Whole, and shoulders its responsibility 
in group activity. This is the stage which a great num- 
ber of the human family are now approaching. Men are 
realising, as never before, the difference between the real 
and the unreal, between the permanent and the imper- 
manent; through pain and suffering they are awakening 
to the recognition that the not-self suffices not, and they 
are searching without and also within, for that which will 
more adequately meet their needs. Men are seeking to 
understand themselves, to find the kingdom of God with- 
in themselves, and through Mental Science, New Thought, 
and the study of psychology they will arrive at certain 
realisations which will prove invaluable to the human 
race. The indication is therefore to be found that the 
form stage is rapidly approaching, and that men are pass- 
ing out of the atomic period into something infinitely bet- 
ter and greater. Man is beginning to sense the vibration 
of that greater Life within Whose body he is but as an 
atom, and he is commencing, in a small way, to make a 
conscious response to that greater call, and to find possible 
channels whereby he can understand that greater Life 
which he senses, but as yet does not know. If he persists 
in this, he will find the group to which he belongs, and 
will then change his centre. No longer will he be limited 
by his own little atomic wall, but he will pass beyond it, 
and become, in his turn, a conscious, active, intelligent 
part of the greater whole. 

And how is this change brought about? The atomic 
stage was developed by means of the five senses, and 
through the utilisation of the faculty of discrimination. 
The stage at which a man awakens to group realisation, 
and becomes a conscious participant in the activities of 
the group, is brought about in two ways, through medi- 



70 EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 

tation, and through a series of initiations. Now when I 
use the word "meditation" I do not mean what is perhaps 
usually understood by that word, a negative, receptive, 
state of mind, or a state of trance. There is much miscon- 
ception these days as to what meditation really is, and 
there is a great deal of so called meditation which has 
been truly described by a person not so long ago, as "I 
shut my eyes, and open my mouth, and wait for something 
to happen." The true meditation is something that re- 
quires the most intense application of the mind, the utmost 
control of thought, and an attitude which is neither nega- 
tive nor positive, but an equal balance between the two. 
In the Eastern Scriptures the man who is attempting medi- 
tation and achieving its results, is described as follows — 
and from a consideration of these words may come much 
help and illumination to us : "The Maha Yogi, the great 
ascetic, in whom is centred the highest perfection of aus- 
tere penance and abstract meditation, by which the most 
unlimited powers are attained, marvels and miracles are 
worked, the highest spiritual knowledge is acquired, and 
union with the great Spirit of the universe is eventually 
attained." Here this union with the group life is held to 
be the product of meditation, and there is no other method 
of attainment. 

True meditation (of which the preliminary stages are 
concentration upon and application to any particular line 
of thought) will differ for different people and different 
types. The religious man, the mystic, will centre his at- 
tention upon the life within the form, upon God, upon 
Christ, or upon that which embodies for him the ideal. 
The business man, or the professional man, who, during 
his hours of work, is one-pointedly centred upon the mat- 
ter he has on hand, and who keeps his attention fixed up- 
on the particular problem he has to solve, is learning to 



EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 71 

meditate. Later on, when he comes to the more spiritual 
aspect of meditation, he will find that he has covered the 
hardest part of the road. The person who is reading a 
difficult book, and reads with the full force and power of 
his brain, getting at that which lies behind the written 
word, may be meditating as much as it is possible for him 
to meditate at this time. I say this for our encourage- 
ment, because we live in a cycle in which books about medi- 
tation are written, and many schools of meditation are 
found. All of them embody some aspect of the truth, and 
may be doing much good, but they may not embody that 
which is best for any particular individual. We need to 
find our own way of concentrating, to ascertain our own 
method of approach to that which lies within, and to study 
for ourselves this question of meditation. 

I would like here to sound a word of warning. Avoid 
those schools and methods which combine forms of breath- 
ing exercises with meditation, which teach different types 
of physical postures, and teach their students to centre 
their attention upon physical organs or centres. Those 
who follow these methods are heading towards disaster, 
and apart from the physical dangers involved, and the risk 
of insanity and nervous disorders, they are occupying 
themselves with the form, which is limitation, and not 
with the spirit, which is life. The goal will not be achieved 
that way. For most of us the intellectual concentration 
which results in mind control, and the ability to think 
clearly and to think only that which we wish to think, 
must precede true meditation, which is a thing few people 
know much about. This true meditation, which it is im- 
possible for me to enlarge upon here, will result in a 
definite change of polarisation, will open up to man ranges 
of experiences undreamt of hitherto, will reveal to him 
contacts that as yet he does not realise, and will enable 



72 EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 

him to find his place within the group. He will be no 
longer confined by the wall of his personal life, but will 
begin to merge that life within the greater whole. He 
will no longer be occupied with the things of selfish inter- 
est, but will give his attention to the problems of the group. 
He will no longer give his time to the culture of his own 
identity, but will seek to understand that greater Identity 
of which he is a part. This is really what all advanced 
men are beginning more or less to do. Little as the aver- 
age man may realise it, great thinkers, such as Edison and 
others, arrive at a solution of their problems along the line 
of meditation. By a brooding concentration, by a con- 
stant recollection, and by strenuous application to the 
particular line of thought which interests them, they pro- 
duce results, they tap the inner reservoirs of inspiration 
and of power, and bring down from the higher levels of 
the mental plane results which benefit the group. When 
we ourselves have done a certain amount of work along the 
line of meditation, when we are cultivating group interest 
and not self interest, when we have developed physical 
bodies that are strong and clean, and emotional bodies that 
are controlled, and not swayed by desire, when we have 
mental bodies that are our instruments and not our mas- 
ters, then we shall know the true meaning of meditation. 
When a man has made his contact through meditation 
with the group to which he belongs, and becomes, there- 
fore, ever more and more group conscious, he is then in a 
position to take what are called a series of initiations. 
These initiations are simply expansions of consciousness, 
brought about with the help of Those Who have already 
achieved the goal, Who have already identified Themselves 
with the group, and Who are a conscious part of the body 
of the Heavenly Man. With Their assistance, and through 



EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 73 

Their aid, a man will gradually awaken to the realisation 
that is Theirs. 

There is great interest everywhere today in this sub- 
ject of initiation, and an over-emphasis has been laid upon 
its ceremonial aspect. We need to remember that every 
great unfoldment of consciousness is an initiation. Every 
step forward along the path of awareness is an initiation. 
When an atom of substance was built into the form, it was 
for that atom an initiation. It became aware of another 
type of force, and its range of contact became wider. When 
the consciousness of the vegetable and animal kingdom 
merged, and the life passed from the lower kingdom into 
the higher, that was an initiation. When the consciousness 
of the animal expanded into that of the human being, still 
another great initiation took place. All the four kingdoms 
have been entered by an initiation, or through an expan- 
sion of consciousness. Ahead of the human family lies 
now the fifth, or spiritual kingdom, and it is likewise en- 
tered through a certain initiation, as can be seen by those 
who intelligently read their New Testament. And in all 
these cases these initiations have been brought about by 
the help of Those who already know. Thus we have within 
the evolutionary scheme not great gaps between one king- 
dom and another, and between one state of awareness and 
another, but a gradual development of consciousness, and 
one in which we, each one of us, have had and will have our 
share. If we can remember this universality of initiation 
w e shall have a better proportioned point of view in connec- 
tion with it. Every time that we become more aware of our 
environment, and our mental content is increased, it is an 
initiation on a tiny scale. Every time our horizon widens, 
and we think and see more broadly, it is an initiation, and 
herein to us lies the value of life itself, and the greatness 
of our opportunity. 



74 EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 

One point I wish to make here is this: every 
initiation has to be self -initiated. That final stage when 
definite help is brought to us from outside sources is not 
achieved because there are great Beings anxious to help 
us, Who come to us where we are and seek to lift us. It 
comes to us because we have done the necessary work, and 
nothing can stop it coming. It is our right. Those who 
have achieved can and will and do aid and assist us, but 
Their hands are tied until we have done our share of the 
undertaking. Nothing therefore that we do to increase 
our usefulness in the world, no steps that we take to build 
better bodies, no effort that we make to gain selfcontrol 
and to equip our mental body, is ever lost; it is all some- 
thing which we are adding to the total we are piling up, 
which will some day bring us to a great revelation, and 
every hourly, daily effort that we make, swells the tide of 
energy which will sweep us to the portal of initiation. The 
meaning of the word "initiation" is to "to go into." It 
means simply that an initiate is one who has taken the 
first steps into the spiritual kingdom, and has had the first 
series of spiritual revelations, each one of which is a key 
to a still greater revelation. 



LECTURE VI. 
THE GOAL OF EVOLUTION. 



In using such a title as the Goal of Evolution, I feel 
extremely diffident ; I realise that the only thing I can pos- 
sibly attempt is to put certain suppositions before you, 
drawing upon my imagination. Naturally it is not pos- 
sible for finite mind to accurately gauge the plan of the 
Deity. All that we can do is to study the history of the 
past, to investigate present conditions, and to ascertain 
somewhat racial and natural tendencies, and thus follow, 
as logically as may be, the various steps and stages. All 
that is permissible for us is to start from the solid basis 
of acquired facts and knowledge, then put them all to- 
gether, and from their aggregate form an hypothesis as to 
what may be the possible goal. Beyond that it is impos- 
sible to go. 

In our talks upon evolution, as I mentioned in the 
first lecture, we have been dealing somewhat with sup- 
positions, and concerning ourselves with possibilities. 
Certain things we do know, and certain truths have been 
ascertained; yet even the facts of science, for instance, 
such as were so much spoken of and insisted upon forty 
years ago, are no longer regarded as facts, and are not 
used or promulgated as drastically and as emphatically 
as they were. Science itself is finding every year that its 
knowledge is very relative. The more a man grasps and 
knows, the greater is the horizon which opens up before 
him. Scientists are now venturing into what are the 
subtler planes of matter, and therefore into the realms of 
the unproven, and we should remember that, up till the 
present, science has refused to admit their existence. We 

75 



76 THE GOAL 

are passing bey ond the sphere of what has been called "solid 
matter", into such reams as are inferred when we speak 
about "centres of energy", "negative and positive force", 
and "electrical phenomena" ; and the emphasis is being laid 
more and more upon quality rather than upon what has 
been called substance. The further we look ahead, the 
wider our speculations become, and the more we attempt 
to account for telepathic, psychic and other phenomena, 
the more we shall trespass into the realm of what is now 
the subjective and the subconscious, and the more we shall 
be forced to express ourselves in terms of quality or of 
energy. 

If Ave succeed at all in accounting for that which is 
unusual, for that which is as yet inexplicable to us, and 
in ascertaining the reality of the occult, we shall bring 
about a condition which might almost be called paradox- 
ical. We shall gradually make the subjective the objec- 
tive. 

Let us again briefly sum up the substance of the talks 
we have had during the past few weeks, and thus start 
with our ideas clarified. We dealt first with the atom of 
substance, and found that that atom was a centre of force ; 
that it was of electrical origin, being the conjunction of a 
form of negative and positive energy, and that it showed 
psychic quality; we found it demonstrating selective 
capacity and discrimination. We then saw how the atom 
was gradually built up into differing forms ; that these 
forms were distinguished by another quality to that of the 
atom, which we called attraction, response to sensation, 
and in reality a recognition of duality. In these two, the 
atom, and the form composed of atoms, we had two of the 
aspects of the Godhead manifested. We saw that the active 
intelligence, or the mind aspect of Deity, shows itself as 
the discriminating faculty, and that the second aspect 



THE GOAL 77 

shows itself as that cohesive attractive power which holds 
the form together. Next we found that man is the sum- 
mation of the two previous developments of the divine 
life, combining atomic substance into form, whilst mani- 
festing a third factor, that of intelligent purpose or will. 
That central will is the real man, the spiritual entity, who 
uses the form for purposes of his own. Man therefore 
embodies all the three aspects of the Godhead, and is 
verity and in truth made in the image of God. He is a 
synthesis. The life of the third Person in the Godhead, 
showing as intelligence, animates the substance of his 
bodies; the life of the second aspect, revealing that God 
is attractive love, is the force which builds up the 
atoms into the forms which he occupies, whilst he in es- 
sence is the will or spirit aspect. In him, therefore, pul- 
sates the life of God the Father, God the Son, and God the 
Holy Spirit. 

Having traced the different lines of evolution until 
they meet in man we proceeded to weave romances and 
to expand our ideas into something greater. We consid- 
ered the sphere of the planet, and we said that it might 
perhaps be a logical hypothesis to posit that within that 
great atom, a planet, there might be— animating it and 
working through it— a Life that is expressing itself in 
and through and by that planet. From the planet we 
leapt to the solar system, and we saw that, if it were logical 
to deduce such facts concerning the planet, it might be 
equally logical to say that the solar system is a cosmic 
atom, a vast spheroidal form, animated by a central LIFE, 
which is working out, by means of that form, an ultimate 
purpose. 

Having therefore dealt with the atom of substance, 
with the human atom, with the planetary atom, and with 
the cosmic atom, we left the discussion of the objective 



78 THE GOAL 

side of manifestation, and our speculations as to the nature 
of that which indwelt the form, and proceeded in our lec- 
ture last week to take up the subject of consciousness, of 
the evolution of the life within the form, and of the con- 
tacts made by means of it. We said that for each of these 
atoms there was a specific goal, that for the atom of sub- 
stance there was the goal of self -consciousness ; that all 
forms are conscious, but that all forms are not self-con- 
scious, and that between man and the animal there was a 
profound distinction marking the difference between con- 
sciousness, and that self-consciousness which becomes pos- 
sible when the spirit or will aspect of divinity indwells the 
form. For man there is a still greater consciousness or 
realisation to be achieved, which we call group-conscious- 
ness. Logically, then, we had to predicate for the plane- 
tary Deity of our Earth a further stage of unfoldment 
which we called God-consciousness, or the realisation of 
that Life which informs the entire sphere of the solar sys- 
tem, which is the goal for the planetary spirit. Finally we 
saw that there may be a still vaster stage of realisation 
to be compassed by the solar Logos, functioning through 
His solar system along some cosmic line inconceivable to 
us. 

The subject that I am going to consider now is one 
that affects us very closely : namely, the attainment by man 
of that group consciousness which is his goal, and the ex- 
pansions of his little consciousness until it measures up 
to that greater one which enfolds it. You will remember 
that in trying to explain the difference between self con- 
sciousness, group consciousness, and God consciousness, I 
illustrated it by pointing out that in the little atom of 
substance in the physical body, that tiny centralised life 
which goes to the constitution of the human form, we had 
a correspondence to the self-consciousness of the human 



THE GOAL 79 

being ; that the life of the physical body, considering it in 
every one of its departments as a whole, is to that little 
self contained cell what group consciousness is to us; and 
that the consciousness of the real man, the informing en- 
tity within the body, is to that atom what God conscious- 
ness is to us, as inexplicable and as far removed. If we 
can extend this concept of the atom in our body and its 
relation to man, the thinker, to the human atom, regard- 
ing it as a unit within a still greater body, we may get an 
understanding of the radical difference between these 
three rays of consciousness. 

There is a very interesting analogy between the evolu- 
tion of the atom and of man (and I presume therefore of 
the planetary Deity and the solar Logos ) in the two meth- 
ods of unfoldment that are followed. We have seen that 
the atom has its own atomic life, and that every atom of 
substance in the solar system is likewise a little system 
in itself, having a positive centre, or central sun, with the 
electrons, or the negative aspect, revolving in their orbits 
around it. Such is the internal life of the atom, its self- 
centred aspect. We noted too, that the atom is now being 
studied along a newer line, that of radio-activity, and it 
is becoming apparent that in many cases there is an active 
radiation going on. Just where this discovery is going to 
lead it is impossible yet to tell, for the study of radio-active 
substances is as yet in its infancy, and little is actually 
known. Much of the earlier teaching of physical science 
has been revolutionised by the discovery of radium, and 
the more scientists find out, the more it becomes apparent, 
(as they themselves realise) that we are standing on the 
threshold of very great discoveries, and are on the eve of 
profound revelations. 

In the human being, as he evolves and develops, these 
two stages can equally be seen. There is the early, or 



80 THE GOAL 

atomic stage, in which a man's whole centre of interest 
lies within himself, within his own sphere, where self- 
centredness is the law of his being, a necessary protective 
stage of evolution. He is purely selfish, and concerned 
primarily with his own affairs. This is succeeded by a 
later stage, in which a man's consciousness begins to ex- 
pand, his interests begin to lie outside his own particular 
sphere, and the period arrives in which he is feeling for 
the group to which he belongs. This stage might be viewed 
as corresponding to that of radio-activity. He is now not 
only a self-centred life, but he is also beginning to have a 
definite effect upon his surroudings. He is turning his at- 
tention from his own personal selfish life, and is seeking 
his greater centre. From being simply an atom he is, in 
his turn, becoming an electron, and coming under the in- 
fluence of the great central Life which holds him within 
the sphere of Its influence. 

If this is so, we shall have analogous stages transpir- 
ing within the life of the planetary Deity, and this per- 
haps would account for various vicissitudes and happen- 
ings upon the planet. Often we consider the affairs of the 
world as due to human activity. The world war, for in- 
stance, is frequently regarded as the result of human mis- 
takes and frailties. Perhaps this is so, for undoubtedly 
economic conditions and human ambitions may have been 
very largely concerned in bringing it about; but perhaps, 
also, it may have been partly due to the working out of 
the purpose of the great central Life, Whose conscious- 
ness is not as yet our consciousness, Who has His own 
plans and purposes and ideals, and Who, perhaps, also 
makes His experiments with life. On His vaster scale, and 
on His own high level, this planetary Spirit is learning to 
live, is learning to contact, and is likewise expanding His 
consciousness ; He is Himself at school, just as you and I 



THE GOAL 81 

are at school. So, again, it may be with the solar system, and 
so with events of such magnitude that they escape our ken 
altogether. Perhaps there are occurrences within the 
solar system which may be due to the working out of the 
plans of the Deity or Logos, that central Life Who is the 
energising source of all there is within the solar system. 
I do not know, but it makes an interesting line of thought 
for us, and it does no harm to speculate if the effect is to 
give us a broader vision, a wider tolerance, and a greater 
and wiser optimism. 

Having seen that the two stages of atomic activity and 
radio activity characterise the evolution of all atoms in 
the solar system, let us now see what are the different de- 
velopments which may be expected as the consciousness 
within the human atom evolves. I should like to centre 
our attention upon this human type of consciousness, as it 
is the central evolution in the solar system. When the 
three aspects of the divine life are brought together — the 
indwelling life, or spirit, the material form, or substantial 
vehicle, and the factor of intelligent activity — certain spe- 
cific results will eventuate. We shall have the gradual 
working out of consciousness of a particular kind ; the de- 
velopment of psychic quality; the effect of the subjective 
life upon the material form ; the utilisation of the form for 
certain specific ends, and the attainment by the indwell- 
ing entity of certain qualities. The true nature of the 
central life, be it God or man, will be manifested during 
a life cycle, whether solar or human. That is true of you 
and it is true of me; it is probably true of the planetary 
Logos, and if true of him, therefore also of a solar Logos. 

Let us try, if we can, to follow some of the different 
developments in connection with our four types of atoms — 
the atom of substance, the human atom, the planetary atom 
and the cosmic atom. One of the first and most important 



82 THE GOAL 

developments will be conscious response to every vibration 
and contact, that is, the ability to respond to the not-self 
on every plane. Let me illustrate. I could go down to 
certain halls in this city, and gather together an audience 
composed of the unskilled labourers and illiterates. I 
could talk to them, and repeat what I have been saying 
this evening, and get no response whatever. Yet I could 
go down and give them a talk such as I gave ten years ago, 
along strictly evangelical or Gospel lines, and meet with 
a rapid reaction. Here the question of right or wrong- 
does not enter in, but simply the difference in the ability 
of different grades and types of men at different stages of 
evolution to respond to contact and vibration. It simply 
means that certain people are at a stage where they can 
be reached by an emotional appeal, and dealt with along 
the line of their own personal salvation, being in the earlier 
atomic stage as yet. There is another stage which includes 
that, but which enables one to respond also to a more in- 
tellectual appeal, which gives one a certain amount 
of interest and satisfaction in such discussions as we have 
pursued, and which means investigation of those matters 
which concern the group, for instance. But both stages 
are equally right. 

We can look at this matter from another angle: it is 
quite possible for us to meet great people, wonderful men 
and women, and fail to be impressed by them; we might 
pass them by without recognising them, and thus miss that 
which they have to give us. This happened in Palestine 
in connection with the Christ, two thousand years ago. 
Why? Because we ourselves are not yet great enough to 
respond to them. There is something still lacking in us, 
so that we are unable to realise or feel their particular 
vibration. I have heard it said, and I think it is very true, 
that if the Christ were to come down upon earth again, and 



THE GOAL 83 

walk among men as He did before, He might live His life 
amongst us day after day and we would not notice any- 
thing so very different in Him from the other good and un- 
selfish people whom we know. We have not yet cultivated 
within ourselves the ability to respond to the divine in our 
brother. We usually see only that which is bad and coarse, 
and are cognisant principally of our brother's faults. We 
are insensitive, yet, to the best in people. 

Another development will be that we shall be able 
to function consciously on all planes of being. We 
function consciously now on the physical plane, and there 
are a few people who are able to function equally con- 
sciously on the next subtler plane, that which is called the 
astral plane ( a word I very much dislike, as it conveys no 
real meaning to our minds) or the plane of the emotional 
nature, on which a man is active when out of the physical 
body, in the hours of sleep or immediately after death. 
Very few human beings can function on the mental plane 
in fully awakened consciousness, and still fewer upon the 
spiritual plane. The object of evolution is that we should 
consciously function, with full continuity of realisation, 
upon the physical, emotional, and mental planes. This is 
the great achievement which will some day be ours. We 
shall then know what we do every hour of the day, and 
not for just about fourteen hours out of the twenty-four. 
At present we remain unconscious of where the real think- 
ing entity is during the hours of sleep. We do not know 
what his activities are, nor the condition of his environ- 
ment. Some day we shall utilise and employ every minute 
of every hour of every day. 

Another purpose of evolution is a three-fold one, and 
it is that we should have purpose or will, love, and energy 
co-ordinated. That is not so as yet. We have much intelli- 
gent energy continuously displayed now, but it is very rare 



84 THE GOAL 

indeed to meet a person whose whole life is animated by 
a central purpose, which is followed unswervingly, and 
which is animated and instigated by love working through 
intelligent activity. The time is coming, however, when 
we shall have expanded our consciousness to such an ex- 
tent, and be so active within ourselves, that we shall be- 
come radio-active. We shall then carry forward a definite 
purpose which will be the outcome of love, and attain our 
objective by means of the intelligence. This is all that God 
is doing, is it not? At our present stage of development, 
we are certainly intelligent, but as yet there is very little 
love. We may have a little love for those we contact or 
meet, and a greater love for our family and immediate 
friends, but we know practically nothing of group love. 
When group love is voiced for us by the great idealists of 
the race it is nevertheless true that we have reached the 
stage where we can respond somewhat to it, and feel that 
it is something we should like to see realised. It is good 
to remember that the more we think along such definitely 
altruistic lines, the more we shall build up something of 
very great value, and develop by slow and laborious de- 
grees the rudiments of a real group consciousness, which as 
yet lies far ahead for most of us. 

There are several other developments during the evo- 
lutionary process with which we might deal, and which 
are at present so far ahead that they are practically incon- 
ceivable unless we have the peculiar type of brain that can 
think somewhat abstractly. There is the stage in which 
we can transcend time and space, when the consciousness 
of the group in all parts of the planet, for instance, will be 
our consciousness, and when it will be just as easy for us 
to contact the consciousness of a friend in India, Africa, 
or elsewhere, as it is here; distance and separation will 
prove no barrier to intercourse. Symptoms of this can be 



THE GOAL 85 

seen in the ability which some people have to communicate 
telepathically, or to psychometrise. 

It is all very well to spend some time visioning this - 
distant goal, and picturing the achievement of the Logos 
billions of years hence, but the thing of vital interest for 
us is to get some idea of the immediate stage ahead; and 
to understand what we may expect to happen in connec- 
tion with the evolutionary process during the next few 
thousand years. Let us consider this idea somewhat. There 
are, as we know, three main lines of thought in the world, 
the scientific, the religious, and the philosophical. Now, 
in these three what have we got? In the scientific line of 
thought we have embodied all that concerns matter, the 
substance aspect of manifestation; it deals with objectiv- 
ity, and with that which is material, tangible, and seen; 
literally, with that which can be proven. In religious 
thought we have that which is concerned with the life with- 
in the form, which deals with the return of spirit to its 
source, plus all that has been gained by the use of the form ; 
it has reference to the subjective side of nature. In philo- 
sphical thought we have what I might call the utilisation 
of the intelligence by the indwelling life, in order that the 
form may be adequately adapted to its need. Let us con- 
sider in this connection certain developments which may 
be looked for in the immediate future, remembering that 
all that I say is only intended to be suggestive, and that I 
speak in no dogmatic spirit. 

It is obvious to most thinkers that science, having be- 
gun the study of radio-activity, is on the verge of discover- 
ing what is the nature of the power within the atom itself ; 
it is very probable that before long we shall harness the 
energy of atomic matter for every conceivable purpose, 
for heating, for lighting, and for what I might call the mo- 
tivation of everything that is carried on in the world. That 



86 THE GOAL 

force, as some of us knoAv, was nearly discovered in the 
United States fifty years ago by a man called Keely, but 
he was not allowed to give it out to the world because of 
the danger thereby involved. Men are as yet far too selfish 
to be trusted with the distribution of atomic energy. That 
discovery will probably parallel the development of group 
consciousness. Only when man becomes radio-active and 
can work and think in group terms, will it be safe or wise 
for him to utilise the power latent in the atom. Every- 
thing in nature is beautifully co-ordinated, and nothing can 
be discovered or utilised before the right time. Only as 
man becomes unselfish will this tremendous power be per- 
mitted to pass into his hands. Nevertheless, we can, I be- 
lieve, look to science to make tremendous strides in the 
comprehension of atomic energy. 

Then paralleling the evolution of the human being 
again, we can look for man to dominate the air. There is 
a great vibratory sphere, or plane, in the solar system, 
called in some occult books the intuitional plane; it is 
called in the Eastern literature the Buddhic plane, and 
its symbol is the air. Just as man is beginning to find 
his way through the development of the intuition on to 
that plane now, so science is beginning to discover how 
to dominate the air, and as the intuition in man develops 
and grows, so will his control of the air be developed 
and grow. Another thing we can look for (and it is al- 
ready being recognised somewhat) is the development of 
the ability to see in subtler matter. Everywhere there 
are children being born who see more than you or I can. 
I am here referring to something that is based purely 
on material grounds, and concerns the physical eye. I re- 
fer to etheric vision, which is seeing in the finer matter of 
the physical plane, or in that which is called the ethers. 
Much interesting work has been done along this line by 



THE GOAL 87 

students and scientists in California. Dr. Frederick 
Finch Strong has been working along this line in a val- 
uable way, and teaching that the physical eye is capable of 
seeing etherically, and that etheric vision is the normal 
function of the eye. What will the development of this 
faculty mean? It will mean that science will have definite- 
ly to readjust its point of view as to the subtler planes. If 
there come within the range of vision of the normal man or 
woman within the next one hundred years certain aspects 
and forms of life that have been regarded hitherto as imag- 
inary, we have broken once and for all that rank material- 
ism which has distinguished us for so long, and if that 
which is now invisible is recognised along any particular 
line, who shall say how far forward it will be possible for 
us to go as time progresses? Again, the whole trend of 
evolution is toward synthesis. As we go down into matter, 
as we tend toward materialisation, we shall have hetero- 
geneity ; as we work back towards spirit we shall tend to- 
wards unity ; so that in the religious world we can look for 
unity to make its appearance. There is, even now, a much 
greater spirit of tolerance abroad than was the case fifty 
years ago; but the time is rapidly approaching when the 
great fundamental unity that underlies all the different 
religions, and the fact that each faith is a necessary part of 
one great whole, will be recognised by men everywhere, and 
through this recognition, we shall have the simplification 
of religion. We shall have the great central facts empha- 
sized and utilised, and the small and petty differences of 
organisation, and of explanation, overlooked. 

Again, we can look for a very interesting happening 
in connection with the human family to take place, for the 
moment that group consciousness becomes, on a large scale, 
the conscious objective of man, what will occur? You will 
have man putting his foot upon what is called in the relig- 



88 THE GOAL 

ious world, the PATH. You will have him definitely tak- 
ing himself in hand, endeavouring to live the life of the 
spirit, refusing any longer to live a self centred atomic life ; 
you will have him searching for his place within the greater 
whole, finding it by means of definite self-initiated en- 
deavour, and then unifying himself with that group. This 
is all that is really meant by the teaching given about the 
Path in the Protestant, Catholic, and Buddhist churches. 
They all teach the treading of this Path, calling it by differ- 
ent names, such as the Way, the noble Eight-fold Path, the 
Path of Illumination, or the Path of Holiness. Yet it is 
the one Path, that which shineth ever more and more unto 
the perfect day. 

We can look, too, for the development of the power 
to think abstractly, and for the awakening of the intuition. 
As the great races have succeeded one another upon the 
planet, there has ever been an ordered, directed unf oldment 
of the powers of the soul, and a definitely planned se- 
quence. In the third root race, the Lemurian, the physical 
aspect of man was carried to a high stage of perfection. 
Later in the great race which preceded ours, the Atlantean, 
and which perished in the flood, the emotional nature of 
man was developed. Then in the race to which we belong, 
the Aryan, or fifth race, the development of the concrete, 
or lower mind, is the goal, and this we are developing each 
decade. A few are also beginning to develop the power to 
think in abstract terms. 

When this is the case we shall see more of that pecu- 
liar, interesting capacity which some people evince, and 
which we call the ability to be inspired. I am not here 
speaking of mediumship, nor do I mean mediumistic abil- 
ity. There is nothing more dangerous than that which is 
usually meant by the term of "medium." The average me- 
dium is a man of a negative, or receptive nature, and usu- 



THE GOAL 89 

ally so loosely co-ordinated in his threefold nature that an 
extraneous force or entity can use his brain, his hand, or 
his body. It is quite a common phenomenon. Automatic 
writing, ouija boards, and spiritualistic seances of a low 
order, are rampant these days, and are driving thousands 
into insanity, or into nervous disorders. But there is some- 
thing of which mediumship is simply a distortion, and this 
something is inspiration. To be capable of being inspired 
means that a human being has reached a stage in his evo- 
lution where he is consciously and positively under the 
control of his own higher self, the God within. That inner 
ruler, the real self, can, by definite contact, control his 
physical brain, and enable the man to make decisions, and 
to understand the truth, apart from the reasoning faculty 
altogether; this inner God can enable the man to speak, 
to write, and to pass on the truth without the use of the 
lower mind. Truth lies within ourselves. When we can 
contact our own inner God all truth will be revealed to 
us. We shall be Knowers. But this is a positive, not a 
negative thing, and means the putting of oneself in direct 
conscious alignment with one's Ego, or higher self, and 
not the throwing open of one's personality to any passing 
entity or spook. 

This can be seen occurring now, occasionally, but it is 
not very often that the average man comes in contact with 
his higher self. Only in our moments of highest endeav- 
our, only at the great crises of our lives, and only as the 
result of long discipline and strenuous meditation does 
this occur. But some day we shall govern our entire lives, 
not from the personal, selfish point of view, but from the 
point of view of the God within, Who is a direct revelation 
of Spirit on the highest plane. 

The final thing I seek to bring out tonight is that the 
goal for each one of us is the development of the powers 



90 THE GOAL 

of the soul, or of the psyche. This means that you and I 
are going to be psychics. But I am not using this word 
"psychic" as it is usually understood, nor in its every day 
connotation. The psyche is, literally, the soul within, or 
the higher self, who emerges from out of the threefold 
lower self, as the butterfly emerges out of the chrysalis; 
it is that beautiful reality, which we are going to produce 
as the result of our life, or lives, down here. The true 
psychic powers are those which put us in contact with the 
group. The powers of the physical body, which we use 
every day, put us in contact with individuals, but when we 
have developed the powers of the soul, and have unfolded 
its potentialities, we shall be true psychics. Now what are 
those powers? All I can do tonight is to enumerate a few 
out of the many. 

One is the conscious control of matter. The majority 
of us control our physical bodies consciously, making them 
carry out our behests upon the physical plane. Some of 
us control our emotions consciously, but very few of us 
can control the mind. Most of us are controlled by our 
desires, and by our thoughts. But the time is coming when 
we shall consciously control our threefold lower nature. 
Time will then not exist for us at all. We shall have that 
continuity of consciousness upon the three planes of being 
— physical, emotional, and mental — which will enable us 
to live as does the Logos, in that very metaphysical ab- 
straction, the Eternal Now. 

Another power of the soul is psychometry. Now what 
is psychometry? It might be defined as the ability to take 
a tangible something, belonging perhaps to an individual, 
and through the medium of that, to put oneself en rapport 
with that individual, or with a group of individuals. 
Psychometry is the law of association of ideas applied to 



THE GOAL 91 

the vibratory quality of force for the purpose of obtaining 
information. 

Again, the race will become clairaudient and clairvoy- 
ant, which means the capacity to hear and see as clearly 
and accurately upon the subtler planes as we do upon the 
physical. It will involve the ability to hear and see all 
that concerns the group, that is, to hear and see in the 
fourth and fifth dimensions. I am not enough of a mathe- 
matician to attempt to explain these dimensions, and am 
apt myself to get very confused when considering them, 
but an illustration that was given me may make the whole 
thing somewhat clearer. A young Swedish thinker ex- 
plained it to me thus : 

"The fourth dimension is the ability to see through 
and around a thing. The fifth dimension is the ability, for 
instance, to take an eye, and by means of that eye to put 
oneself en rapport with all other eyes in the solar system. 
To see in the sixth dimension might be defined as the power 
to take a pebble off the beach, and by means of it to put 
oneself in accord with the entire planet. Now in the fifth 
dimension, where you took the eye, you were limited to a 
particular line of manifestation, but in the case of the 
sixth dimension, where you took a pebble, you were put in 
touch with the entire planet." This is something very 
far ahead of us, but it is interesting to speak about, and 
holds a promise for each and all. 

There is not time to deal with the other powers, nor 
can I enumerate what they all may be. Healing by touch 
will be amongst them. The manipulation of the magnetic 
fluids, and conscious creation by means of colour and 
sound, are others. All that really concerns us at this time 
is that we should consciously take ourselves in hand, seek 
to come ever more and more under the control of the inner 
ruler, endeavour to become radio-active, and to develop 
group consciousness. 



LECTURE VII. 
COSMIC EVOLUTION. 



It might well be considered ridiculous for anyone to 
undertake to give a lecture on Cosmic Evolution, because, of 
course, it is a subject which neither I nor any other mortal 
knows anything about, and consequently we are utterly 
unable to express ourselves upon it. Nevertheless, there 
are certain deductions we can make under the law of anal- 
ogy which may lead us to very interesting realms of 
thought. We have for several weeks been considering the 
evolution of the atom from stage to stage, until we in- 
cluded the entire solar system under the term "atom". 

We studied first, along general lines, the atom of sub- 
stance, then we studied the human atom, and later we 
applied what we knew about both these atoms to the still 
larger sphere, or atom, a planet, which we called a plane- 
tary atom; then we extended the idea still further to the 
atom of the solar system, predicating it as having a posi- 
tion within a still greater whole. 

We studied three methods of evolution, or develop- 
ment, in connection with this subject. We considered the 
aspects which were evolved by means of these atoms, their 
qualities, or psychic nature, and we saw how in the atom 
of substance the only psychic quality we could postulate 
about it was the quality of intelligence. We passed on 
them to atomic forms, subhuman forms, and saw how the 
forms in the two kingdoms of nature, the vegetable and 



93 



94 COSMIC EVOLUTION 

animal, demonstrated another quality of the Deity, that of 
sensation, feeling, or embryo love and emotion; we found 
that in the animal kingdom also a third quality, that of 
rudimentary mind, began to show itself, and that when we 
arrived at the human atom, we had three aspects demon- 
strating, intelligence, love, and a central will. We extended 
this concept to the planet and to the solar system, and found 
that, working out through the form of the solar system, 
we had a great Intelligence or Mind; that the object of 
His utilisation of form was the demonstration of another 
quality, love or wisdom, the whole being energised by a 
great central WILL. We deduced therefrom that this 
central Will might be the manifestation of an Entity Who 
informs the entire system, from the very lowest atom of 
substance up to that great Life Who energises the plane- 
tary scheme. 

Having laid down these fundamentals we passed on 
to the consideration of the evolution of the conscious life 
within the atomic form, finding that a higher type of con- 
sciousness is consistently evolved by each atom; that the 
human consciousness is distinguished from all other lower 
forms in that it is self-conscious ; that man is an intelligent 
will, consciously performing every action, becoming aware 
of his surroundings, and working out a definite line of 
activity Avith a specific objective in view. The self -con- 
sciousness of man leads on again to something wider still, 
to the consciousness of the great planetary Spirit, which 
may perhaps be best expressed in the term 'group con- 
sciousness'. As evolution proceeds man will pass from 
the stage of self-consciousness in which you and I now 
are, to a realisation of what is meant by group conscious- 
ness, something as yet practically unknown, except as some 
beautiful ideal, and a dream which may, at some distant 
time, materialise. Group consciousness, again, will logi- 



COSMIC EVOLUTION 95 

cally lead on to that Avhich we, for lack of a better term, 
might call God-consciousness, though I deprecate the use 
of the word God because of the many quarrels it causes in 
the world between the different thinkers of the human 
family. These differences are founded largely upon differ- 
ences in phraseology, upon the terms used to express fun- 
damental ideas, and upon varying methods of organisation. 
When the scientist, for instance, speaks of force, or energy, 
and the Christian speaks of God, and the Hindu uses terms 
analogous to the 'I am that I am', or the Self, they are all 
speaking of one and the same great life, but have lost much 
time in endeavouring to prove each other wrong, and to 
demonstrate the accuracy of their own interpretation. 

We next saw that, roughly speaking, atomic evolution 
could be divided into two parts or stages; one stage we 
called the atomic stage, and another we called, for lack of 
a better term, the radio-active stage. The atomic stage is 
that in which the atom pursues its own self-centred life, is 
concerned entirely with its own evolution, and the effect of 
the contacts it makes. As evolution proceeds, it 
becomes apparent that in time the atom begins to react 
to a greater life outside itself, and in this you have the 
period analogous to that of the form-building stage, in 
which these atoms of substance are attracted by a greater- 
charge of energy, or positive electrical force, (if you like 
to call it such) which draws them, or attracts them to 
itself, and builds out of them a form ; these atoms of sub- 
stance, in turn, become then electrons. We found, then, 
how, in your case and mine, as in the case of every self- 
conscious unit, the same procedure is followed, and that 
you have a central life holding within the sphere of its 
influence the atoms that constitute the different bodies, 
mental, emotional, and physical; that we manifest, that 
we move and carry on our life, and work out our purposes, 



96 COSMIC EVOLUTION 

by attracting to ourselves the atoms of substance that are 
adequate to our needs, and through which we can make the 
necessary contacts. These atoms are to us, the central life, 
what the electrons are to the central positive charge in the 
atom of substance. Then we saw that if this is true, name- 
ly, that there is a self-centred stage, or purely atomic per- 
iod, for the atom, and for the human atom, then again for 
the atom of the planet, indwelt by its central spiritual life, 
we should be able to predicate logically a similar state of 
affairs. Thus we were led into the field of speculation. We 
considered then whether all that transpires upon our 
planet may not be due to the self-centred condition of the 
Entity Who is working out His purposes by means of it. 
Finally we carried forward the same idea in connection 
with the solar system itself. 

We passed on then to the consideration of the second 
stage, that which the scientist has been studying in con- 
nection with the atom of the chemist and physicist for the 
last twenty years, the radio-active stage ; we saw how there 
was a condition analogous to this in the evolution of the 
human atom, and that there is a period preceding it which 
parallels the atomic stage, wherein man is purely selfish, 
entirely self-centred, and pays no attention to the welfare 
of the group of which he is a part. This prior stage is very 
apparent in the world today. A large percentage of the 
human family is in the atomic stage, but we must remem- 
ber that it is a protective and necessary one; it is passed 
through by every unit of the human family in the process 
of finding its place within the group, and enables it to 
develop something of value to give to that group when the 
second stage is entered. 

In the world today there are also units of the human 
family who are passing into the second stage, they are be- 
coming radio-active and magnetic, they influence other 



COSMIC EVOLUTION 97 

forms and are becoming gronp conscious ; they are passing 
out of the "I am" stage into the "I am that" realisation ; the 
life and purpose of the great Entity of Whose body they 
are a part, is beginning to be cognised by them ; they are 
becoming aware of the purpose back of the life of the plane- 
tary Spirit Who is the subjective impulse lying behind 
objective manifestation upon our earth. They are begin- 
ning to co-operate with His plans, to work for the better- 
ment of their group ; and the difference between them and 
other atoms of the human family is that they are now group 
conscious, they have a wider horizon, a group recognition, 
and a larger purpose. At the same time they do not lose 
their self -consciousness, nor their own individual identity, 
and their own spheroidal life remains, but they put the 
whole force and energy which flows through them not into 
the working out of their own plans, but into an intelligent 
co-operation with the greater Life of which they are a part. 
Such men are few and far between, but when they are 
more in number, then we can look for a change in world 
conditions, and for that time to arrive, of which St. Paul 
speaks when he says : "There should be no division in the 
body, but the members should have the same care one for 
another. Whether one member suffer, all members suffer 
with it, or one member be honoured, all rejoice with it. . . . 
it is the same God which worketh all in all. There are 
diversities of gifts but the same spirit ; there are differences 
of ministries (or service) but the same Lord." When we 
are all group conscious, when we are all aware of the pur- 
pose which lies back of manifestation upon our planet, 
when we are consciously active, and throwing all our 
energy into the working out of group plans, then we shall 
have what the Christian calls the "millennium". 

Now, if you have in the evolution of the atom of sub- 
stance, and the human atom, these two stages, if they are 



98 COSMIC EVOLUTION 

the basis of all future development, then within the plane- 
tary atom you will have the same two stages, that in which 
the planetary Life is working out His own plans, and a 
later one in which He falls in with the greater plans of the 
Life which animates the solar system. Not yet being in a 
position to have an interview with the planetary Spirit, I 
am unable to tell you whether He is as yet co-operating in 
the purposes of the solar Logos ; but we might be able to 
get some idea of the general purpose by the study of race 
evolution and the development of the great international 
plans within the planet. We must bear in mind also, that, 
though we human beings consider ourselves as the highest 
and greatest manifestation upon the planet, there may be 
other evolutions through which the central Life may be 
working, of which we know as yet but little, We must 
study not only man, but should consider also the angel 
evolution, or the deva evolution, as the Hindu calls it. This 
opens up for us an immense field of study and speculation. 
Again, within the solar system we shall expect to find 
analogous stages. We shall find, probably, that the great 
Life animating the entire solar system, the great Entity 
Who is using it for the working out of a definite purpose, 
energises it by means of these great centres of force which 
we call planetary atoms ; that these centres, in their turn, 
work by means of lesser centres or groups, passing their 
energy on down through groups of human atoms to the 
various kingdoms of nature, and thus to the little atom of 
substance which, in its turn, reflects the entire solar sys- 
tem. This question of atomic life, if we think it out, is 
vastly interesting, and leads us into many lines of conjec- 
ture. One of the main points of interest which it opens up 
is the intimate correlation, and close interaction of the 
atoms of every kind, and the all-pervading unity which 
must ultimately be recognised. If we have found that 



COSMIC EVOLUTION 99 

there comes a stage in the evolution of all atoms of every 
land in which they feel and search for their place within 
the group, and from being positive become negative in re- 
gard to a greater life, if it is true in all these manifesta- 
tions of consciousness there is a self-conscious stage and a 
group conscious stage, is it not logical and possible that 
perhaps, after all, our solar system is but an atom within 
a greater whole? May there not be for our solar system, 
and our solar Logos, a central larger life towards which 
the informing Spirit within the solar sphere is gradually 
attracted, and towards Whose consciousness our Deity as- 
pires? Are there anywhere indications of such an attrac- 
tive force, or goal? Are there greater spheres of solar life 
outside our system, that have a definite effect upon it? This 
may be but a speculation, but it has its points of interest. 
If we study astronomical books, and seek to ascertain 
whether astronomers say that this is so, we shall meet with 
a vast amount of contradictory opinion ; we shall find that 
some astronomers say that within the Pleiades is a central 
point around which our solar system revolves ; others say 
that in the constellation of Hercules, is the point of mag- 
netic attraction for our solar system. On the other hand, 
you will find this flatly contradicted. We shall find some 
astronomers talking about "star-drift," and saying that 
the drift, or trend, of certain stars is in a specific direction ; 
others argue that the distances are so vast that it is im- 
possible to determine whether certain systems are follow- 
ing a definite orbit or not. 

Nevertheless, if we go to some of the ancient books, 
those which we call mythological ( and a myth may be de- 
fined as something which holds a great truth hidden until 
we are ready to understand it) , and if we study the ancient 
books of the East, we shall find that in all of them there 
are two or three constellations which are regarded as hav- 



100 COSMIC EVOLUTION 

ing a peculiarly intimate relation to our solar system. To- 
wards these views modern astronomers as yet hold an 
agnostic attitude, and from the point of view of material- 
istic science, rightly so. What I seek to emphasize here is 
that a topic upon which scientists and astronomers are 
divided, yet which is nevertheless a subject of contention, 
and one upon which the oriental books sound a clear note, 
must have a basis in fact, and that there is probably an 
aspect of truth in the assertion. I would personally sug- 
gest here that that aspect of truth will be found, not along 
physical lines of interpretation, but along the lines of con- 
sciousness; that it is the psychic evolution that is going on 
within all atoms (using psychic in the sense of the subjec- 
tive consciousness) which is hinted at in these books, and 
the emphasis is laid upon our having an occult relation- 
ship with other solar systems. Here the truth may perhaps 
be found. The life subjective may be one; the energy flow- 
ing between them may be one ; but in the physical form lies 
diversity. Perhaps in the evolution of the intelligence, in 
the manifestation of love, or group consciousness, and in 
the development of will or purpose, lies unity, the one-ness 
of the subjective life, and the eventual recognition that 
within the form, and in the form only, lies separation and 
differentiation. 

The ancient books of the East point out, in considering 
this subject, that the seven stars of the Great Bear, the 
seven stars of the Pleiades, and the sun Sirius, have a 
very close connection with our solar system, and that they 
hold an intimate psychic magnetic relation to our solar 
Logos. We have seen that the goal for the atom of sub- 
stance is self-consciousness ; and that for the Entity Who 
is evolving through a planet, the goal may be God con- 
sciousness. Now, of course, when you consider the solar 
Logos words fail, yet for Him also there must be a goal. You 



COSMIC EVOLUTION 101 

can call this Absolute Consciousness, if you like. Let us 
again illustrate this. Our body, we have been told, is made 
up of a multiplicity of little lives, or cells, or atoms, each 
having its own individual consciousness. This corresponds 
to its self -consciousness. The consciousness of the physical 
body, viewed as a whole, might, from the atom's point of 
view, be regarded as its group consciousness. Then we 
have the consciousness of man, the thinker. He is the one 
who energises the body, and turns it to his will; that is, 
to the atom in his body, analogous to what we might call 
God consciousness. Our self-conscious realisation is as 
far removed from that of the atom as the consciousness of 
the solar Logos is from ours. Now to the atom in our body 
that consciousness of the solar Logos might be called Ab- 
solute Consciousness, might it not? This thought can be 
extended to the human atom, to the planetary atom, and 
you can further predicate that the solar Logos reaches out 
to a consciousness beyond His own analogous to that which 
stretches between the atom in your body and Him. Here 
you have a very marvellous vista opening up. Yet this is, 
in itself, encouraging ; for if we study closely the cell in a 
physical body, and consider the long road that has been 
travelled between its consciousness, and that which a man 
now knows to be his, we have for ourselves the promise and 
hope of future achievement, and the incentive to persist in 
our endeavour. 

The old books of the East have held secreted for many 
ages the truth about much which is only now beginning 
to sink into the consciousness of the occidental. They 
taught the radio-activity of matter thousands of years ago, 
and so perhaps, after all, there may be an equal amount of 
truth in their teaching about the constellations. Perhaps 
in the stars that we can see in the distant heavens, and 
in the life that is evolving within them, we have the objec- 



102 COSMIC EVOLUTION 

live of our solar Logos, and the influences that are flowing 
towards him, attracting him towards them, and making 
him, in due course of time, radio-active. In the Eastern 
hooks they say that in the sun Sirius lies the source of 
wisdom, and that the influence or the energy of love eman- 
ates from there. Then they say that there is a constella- 
tion that is even more closely connected with our solar 
Logos, the reason being that He is not, as yet, sufficiently 
evolved so that He can respond completely to Sirius, but 
He can respond to the influence of the seven sisters or the 
Pleiades. This group is a most interesting one. If you 
will go to the dictionary and look up the word "electricity", 
you will find it suggested that it may be traced back to 
the star Electra, one of the seven sisters, and supposed by 
some to be the little lost Pleiad. The Eastern teachers say 
that in the mystery of electricity is hidden all knowledge, 
and that when we have fathomed that we shall know all 
there is to be known. What the relationship of the Plei- 
ades to our solar system may be, it is not possible for us 
to say, but even our Christian Bible recognises it, and Job 
speaks of "the sweet influences of the Pleiades," whilst 
some of the Oriental Scriptures affirm that the connection 
lies in sound, or vibration. Perhaps the Pleiades are the 
source of the atomic life of our Logos, the active intelligent 
aspect, that one which was first developed, and which we 
might call electrical matter. 

Then there is the Great Bear. There is much that is 
interesting said about the relation between the Great Bear 
and the Pleiades in Oriental writings. The seven sisters 
are said to be the seven wives of the seven stars of the 
Great Bear. Now what is perhaps the truth back of that 
legend? If the Pleiades are the source of electrical mani- 
festation, the active intelligent aspect of the solar system, 
and their energy that which animates all matter, they may 



COSMIC EVOLUTION 103 

perhaps represent the negative aspect, whose polar oppo- 
site, or the positive aspect, is their seven hnsbands, the 
seven stars of the Great Bear. Perhaps the nnion of these 
two is what produces our solar system. Perhaps these two 
types of energy, one from the Pleiades, and the other from 
the Great Bear, meet, and in their conjunction produce 
that blazing forth in the heavens which we call our solar 
system. 

The relationship of these two constellations, or rather 
their subjective relationship, must surely have some basis 
in fact, or we would not have it hinted at in the different 
mythologies. There must be something that connects them, 
out of all the myriads of constellations, with our solar 
system. But when we endeavour to give it a purely physi- 
cal application we go astray. If we work it out along the 
lines of the subjective life, and connect it with energy, 
quality, or force, we are liable to stumble upon truth, and 
find out some of the reality which may underly what ap- 
pears at first sight to be a senseless fable. Anything that 
widens our horizon, that enables us to take a broader vi- 
sion and a clearer view of what is going on in the evolu- 
tionary process, is of value to us, not because the accu- 
mulation of ascertained facts is of value, but because of 
what it enables us to do within ourselves; our ability to 
think in wider and larger terms is increased; we are en- 
abled to look beyond our self-centred point of view, and to 
include within our consciousness other and different 
aspects than our own. In doing this we are developing 
group consciousness, and we shall realise eventually that 
the apparently stupendous facts which we fought and died 
for down the ages, and emphasised as the entire truth, 
were after all but fragments of a plan, and infinitesimal 
portions of a gigantic sum total. Perhaps, therefore, when 
we come back to earth again, and can look back upon the 



/ - T773 



ry< 



104 COSMIC EVOLUTION 



things that interest ns now, and which we consider so 
important, we shall ~nd how erroneous facts were as we 
then apprehended m. Facts, after all, do not matter; 
the facts of the la^t century are not facts now, and in the 
next century scientists may laugh at our dogmatic asser- 
tions, and wonder how we could have looked upon 
matter as we di' It is the development of the life, and 
the relationship of the life to all that is around, that really 
matters ; and, above all, the effect that we are having upon 
those with whom we are associated, and the work we do, 
which affects, for better or for worse, the group ,in which 
we find ourselves. 

In closing this series of lectures, I cannot do better 
than quote again from St. Paul, where he says : "I reckon 
that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to 
be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us 

for we are saved by hope for I am persuaded 

that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, 
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor 
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able 
to separate us from the love of God." 



FINIS 



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